Alice Biolo (she/her)
Under the skin is a collection of brooches developed from the concept of pain and trauma. The brooches become an intent of translating an emotional state into 9 main physical wearable objects, representing different stages of trauma and how most humans process it. The collection is composed of cylindrical shaped silver hollow structures, with a hidden compartment on the inside, a metaphor of the human state, linear and simple on the outside but complex on the inside. In the traditional sense jewellery serves the purpose of conveying certain symbolism or status toward the outside world. In this instance the lack thereof and the simplicity of the design to the eye of the observer creates a special sentiment for the wearer alone. When worn, the wearer can choose to show and share with an audience the back of the brooch, or keeping it for themselves. The collection is an echo of social behaviour encouraged within our society, to show the attractive aspects of ourselves and share those with the world, while we are encouraged to hide those less appealing and possibly hurtful and damaging, keeping our most vulnerable parts to ourselves. Under the skin aims to open a conversation and awareness regarding mental health and how individual but similar humans experience are.
Photo credit @shannontofts
Under the Skin
Under the Skin collection is made of mixed metals, precious metals, semi-precious stones such as red garnets from Mozambique and second-hand red
garnets kindly gifted from the Scottish Goldsmith Trust, and stainless-steel pins. My decision to use precious and non-precious, ‘new’ and ‘old’ materials is to challenge the public, which perceive
value on just some of them, and traditionally talking mixing these materials would ‘bring down’ the value of
these objects.
Awarness
Trauma can be when you get too close to the fire when you are a child, and learn from it to survive, or a
traumatic experience that will stop you from living and will change who you are forever. Either way, trauma
is experienced from each one of us on a daily basis, from the moment we take our first breath in this world.
The collection aims to be a narration of trauma, from the first brooch N.1, shiny and intact, where the pins
are not visible but present on the inside, to an evolution, where the trauma slowly start to show. A small
opening on the back of the N.2 shows us the pins partially, the silver container slowly become darker and
unpolished. In N.3 the hole becomes bigger, the pins are taking over and the light from the silver is almost
gone. The darkness took over, the outside is now completely covered.
Accepting
Next stage is the acceptance stage. The pins moves, divide, and come back together, the individual is analising and reaching acceptance. N.9 represent the moment when the pain and trauma someone experiences is processed, becomes part
with the individual which now will live with them forever. The pins are still there, healing and the idea of the trauma and the pins to disappear is utopic, but in the end of these series a positive outcome is represent, the pins become gold.
In memory of good memories
Commissioned for the show ‘Memories are made of this’ at Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, curated by Corinne Julius.
‘In memory of good memories’ is a collection of three brooches designed and created
in remembrance of my late grandfather. The collection is a celebration of the good
memories I recall, but also a reflection of my grieving process entailing sadness,
happiness and guilt. The work explores the idea of loss through three aspects: my
personal heirloom; mundane happy moments which can never be repeated; and the
relief from a sudden physical departure rather than a seemingly endless fading of
memories.
On show until the 27th of January 2024.
The hidden world
In the latest collection I’m interested in the hidden side of the human soul, translating it into the designs by creating hidden compartments, hiding it away from the public eye, to establish an intimate relationship only with the wearer or the more attentive eye. The ongoing collection it is a further developemnt of my degree show collection, Under the Skin, to accomodate an audience looking for contemporary, statement jewelleries witth more focus on a diverse and comfortable wearibility.
The designs are characterised by the use of sharp stainless-steel pins and occasionally stones, focusing on light, movements and illusion.
These elements are enclosed in sterling silver structures, carefully crafted employing a laser welder to preserve the quality of the stainless steel and the stones without applying heat through traditional techniques such as soldering.
Spiralling
Trauma, pain and all various mental states are common for the human kind, each every one of us experience negative thoughts in different extend, but none of us are excluded by them.
Over the last year my focus on my practice was trying to translate emotional states into physical objects. Using jewellery making as a tool to process and understand better what is going on in the inside, to represent it and finding ways to accept it and working on it. Each piece is a reaction to a certain feeling I’ve experience, and with it my aims are to work introspective within myself, and share it with an audience, to show that commonly hidden emotions are normal to experience and acceptable to talk about, and hopefully the audience will see themselves onto the work and have a reaction which will positively affect their process of acceptance and healing.
The theme and emotions I wanted to explore and represent with Spiralling are anxiety and distress.
The brooch, of a round shape, holds a rotating mechanism on the inside, filled with steel pins. The pins act as a metaphor for spiralling, also known as catastrophic thinking or magnifying, a series of negative thoughts, like an infinite circle, overwhelming the individual and amplifying the anxiety.
