Checking In with Marion Delarue

A lot more than 100 global artists applied for this year’s Youthful Artist Award. Marion Delarue was selected as a single of the finalists. She received an unrestricted money award of US$1,000 and will exhibit her do the job in Platina’s booth at Schmuck, in July 2022. Her get the job done signifies a team of exceptional pieces of contemporary jewellery. We requested her to inform us a little bit about her qualifications and feelings on the upcoming of the art jewelry area. Hers is the third of our interviews with the honorees. (Study the interview with Younger Artist Award winner Mallory Weston listed here. Our interview with finalist Taisha Carrington is listed here.)

AJF’s Younger Artist Award acknowledges assure, innovation, and individuality, advancing the professions of climbing artists. The opposition was open to makers of wearable art age 35 and underneath who are not at the moment enrolled in a specialist training method. Judging was based mostly on originality, depth of thought, and high quality of craftsmanship. This year’s jurors had been 2020 AJF Artist Award winner MJ Tyson (US) collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg (US) and educator and curator Chequita Nahar (The Netherlands).

Bonnie Levine: How did you turn out to be interested in jewellery? What conjures up your perform?  

Marion Delarue: I have always been a excellent lover of objects, but jewelry was quite distinctive. When I turned 15, I dreamt I would 1 working day show up at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg (right now identified as Hear), which was the only French graduate artwork school to have a master’s degree in contemporary jewellery. (The École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Limoges now also operates these types of a software.)

Funnily ample, once I was admitted, I questioned no matter if I wanted to be a part of the ceramics department to become a sculptress as a substitute. But very immediately I identified utilizing 1 one material really disheartening. On leading of that, I felt I could not fork out as significantly awareness to facts as I wished, presented the dimensions of the is effective.

I quickly returned to my initial appreciate. Led by Sophie Hanagarth and Florence Lehmann, the modern jewelry division was a perfect match: a conceptual solution, great independence, and unlimited experimentations. We also had limitless access to all the other workshops, such as ceramics, glass, wood, and so on. This was really significant to me as I was—already at that time—avoiding metal perform, since I had no affinity with the product (except it is steel that does not get along with me?) and loved deciding on the resources most fitting for each piece.

What does becoming a finalist suggest for you? Will it impact you likely forward?

Marion Delarue: Currently being a finalist usually means a large amount to me. I feel really honored. I have been applying for 10 years, considering that I was a college student. I’ve stored an eye on the competition. This calendar year was my very last possibility to use!

I hope that staying a finalist will be a stepping-stone to a lengthy-lasting romantic relationship with the US artwork jewelry industry. (I frequented for the to start with time in 2019, as component of NYCJW, and I totally liked it!)

Tell us about the work you utilized with.  

Marion Delarue: My do the job normally generates confusion involving authenticity and imitation, nature and artifice, referencing simulacrum, fake pretenses, and lures.

The two assignments I used with illustrate this plan in diverse techniques.

The 1st challenge is the hottest piece from my collection Parrot Devotees. The thought of artifice and duplicity is embodied listed here by means of the extremely graphic of the parrot. “Every human getting has a parrot on his shoulder (…),” said Cocteau about imitation.

A barnyard fowl swoons with admiration and jealousy in excess of a parrot: the amazingly stunning fowl enjoys a particular intimacy with its grasp, whose shoulder he perches on to converse. In a drive to pass them selves off as the parrot, the poultry birds manage themselves and put alongside one another their most lovely feathers to re-develop the illusion of his presence.

The 2nd challenge is the fruit of exploration carried out even though I was in an artist residency at Villa Kujoyama, in Japan, in 2019. In the course of the Edo period of time, Japanese ladies used very precise objects to assistance their imposing hairstyles: Kushis (combs), Kogais (hair sticks), and Kanzashis (hairpins), whose utilitarian functionality lessened right up until they grew to become purely decorative. All over my six-month residency in Kyoto—the coronary heart of refinement in the arts and the cradle of hair accessories—I strived to outline the singularities and specificities of these outstanding objects, concentrating on the most attribute high-quality: the decoration.

This collection has been conceived from bone, wood, shell, stone, and horse hoof. These are products of purely natural origin ordinarily utilised for building Japanese hair ornaments. (I excluded ivory, coral, and turtle shell for moral and regulatory good reasons.) The goal is to search inside these “raw materials” for ornamental capabilities inherent to them, to harness their “natural patterns” and their abnormal chromatic shades: to expose the sudden in the familiar. Participating in with the confusion among the organic and the ornamental, the pieces create ambiguity and destabilize the viewer.

What excites you about the artwork jewelry discipline?   

Marion Delarue: Mainly because the industry is so market, each individual project you run quickly results in being worldwide. Your jewellery friends ordinarily come from all all around the globe and you need to travel to go to the gatherings devoted to the industry. You wouldn’t do a lot, working only in your very own place (specifically in France, where by the scene is mostly below-represented). Funnily more than enough, irrespective of, or fairly for the reason that of its dimensions, the taking part in ground is big!

Also, I am fascinated by the variety of components and procedures made use of, as perfectly as the creativeness I come upon just about every working day. You can in no way get bored. I think this is quite one of a kind.

Any frustrations that you see or have seasoned?  

Marion Delarue: I would like there have been more theorists and artwork critics specialized in the industry. I am confident that they could grow to be an vital aspect in the system of questioning and knowledge art jewellery. They would certainly considerably aid the expansion and the vigor of the discipline.

The place do you assume the artwork jewelry discipline is going? Do you see new and exciting trends?

Marion Delarue: I have the feeling that its exposure and recognition are developing yr just after calendar year, thanks to prizes this kind of as this one. Absolutely sure, there is still training to be completed, and I hope the general community will be sensitized to this discipline like it is to other art fields. But I feel we are on the suitable track!

If you could publish a learn approach for your apply, exactly where would you like to be 5 decades from now?

Marion Delarue: This will most likely audio each terribly pretentious and ludicrous if none of this takes place, but let us give it a check out.

I hope to have my own studio in the countryside all-around Paris, entirely geared up with complex devices within, and two longhaired goats, a pet dog, a duck pond, and, very last but not the very least, fruit trees at the doorstep. I hope I’ll get a possibility to get the job done once again in Japan, a state which I uncovered unbelievably inspiring. I hope to have an chance to go again to New York to investigation or to show. I hope I’ll be element of artist residencies all over Europe, significantly in Sweden and in the Netherlands, which I’ve visited pair of situations and where by I met incredible people. I primarily hope not to glance preposterous in 2027.