I see that Marcus Westbury has been linking up all his recent articles on arts policy (which I blogged about earlier this week) and pointing out some of the attention he’s been getting from other quarters. On that, I feel obliged to note that I was wrong in saying that Richard Gill’s article was in response to Westbury’s blog post, it was more in response to a whole bunch of things that Westbury has been getting out there of late. (The dates I mentioned then do hold true, as in the two pieces of writing I mentioned, Gill’s article was out before Westbury’s post.) But Westbury has been busy on that subject of late, as is much better explained in the aforementioned arts policy post.
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In some completely unrelated news, there’s been a major theft of works by Michael Berger at Joya in Barcelona. A whopping thirty-eight rings were stolen in a pickpocket attack. My heart really goes out to Michael, as it is a completely awful thing to have happen.
The reason why I’m even posting about this is because I’ve been ruminating on it ever since I read about it a couple of days ago. I saw Berger’s rings in the flesh at Courtesy of the Artist (COTA) while in Sydney last year, and was amazed. They are stunning. And incredibly crafted. I was not surprised to be told that he worked under Friedrich Becker, the pioneer of tension settings and moving jewellery (and the author of an amazing monograph of the subject).
I feel bad for Berger’s loss of his rings, not just in an artist-to-artist, or even human-to-human sense. I feel bad because the tiny-yet-bold objects he created touched me in the brief minutes I spent with them. I hate to think of them lost in the world. Or worse, dismantled for the value of their constituent parts.