Last night's powerful windstorm in New York reminds me of this traveling art and jewelry exhibit featuring hurricane-inspired designs--Storm Cycle: An Artist Responds to Hurricane Katrina, which also has as its companion exhibit The Hurricane Brooch Show.
"I want them to use jewelry-making as a method of artistic commentary," [artist Thomas Mann] said. "In some cultures, jewelry pieces transcend fashion to a large degree by becoming objects of celebration, honor, reflection or spiritual context."
For 30 years, Mann has been involved in the contemporary American craft movement as an artist, gallery owner and teacher. While his work ranges from hammered sterling hearts on delicate chains to hanging installations full of aesthetic and thematic confrontation, he is best known in the international art community for his jewelry. But a jeweler he is not. He is a sculptor, often working on a scale that just happens to be wearable.
For Storm Cycle, he created 20 brooches that attach to larger panels, each one a glimpse into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Markings No. 1" pairs found sheet metal with a photo of a handmade warning sign that reads: "U loot / We shoot." Such markings are a major element of the show, as Mann collected images of graffiti made in the desperate hours after the devastation of New Orleans.
"Markings No. 3" is an interpretation of the grids painted on doors by inspection teams charged with searching ruined buildings for bodies. They used symbols to indicate where teams were from, the date and status of the inspection and the number of bodies recovered. Mann said the count started rising when officials realized how many people had died trapped in their attics.
"That's why those markings are so important to people," Mann said, adding that the brooch element of each piece is meant to give its message reach. "They allow you to take the whole story with you."
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