Wilhelm Lindemann – författare

Jewellery designed by Ute Eitzenhöfer is intrinsically complex and contradictory. Her designs range from playful, sensual, reassuring, to dark, angry, provocative and brutal. Intrinsic beauty and its value to society is a recurring theme of her work. The jewellery she creates is autonomous, it makes a statement; created not for an abstract display case, these are strong artefacts that become complete, that find some meaning, only when worn on the body. The narrative Eitzenhöfer strives for is one of social criticism, her designs are perceived as opulent yet reflect certain images or concepts inherent in the modern world. She has consistently challenged and explored the themes of freedom, time, sensuality and superficiality in her work. This volume is a collection of designs that range from her earlier creative work to the last ten years; thought-provoking, imaginative and often extreme, this is jewellery as a social statement, rather than an accessory. Text in English and German.

Engravers Gerd and Patrick Dreher are famous the world over for their masterly animal figures, each of which is cut from a single gemstone. In the early twentieth century, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all cut gemstones for Fabergé - mostly agate but also ruby, obsidian, aquamarine, citrine and rock crystal. Today, creations are still being meticulously made by hand using traditional techniques. The realistic miniature forms of mice, snails, toads, monkeys and hippos are designed by the two artists in multilayered and coloured gemstones so that, for example, the faces, palms of the hand or soles of the feet shine in an iridescent red-brown agate while the bodies are worked in the glossy deep black part of the stone. These unique engravings are today some of the rarest examples of the highest quality in craftsmanship, and represent fascination of the highest cultural degree in a world of increasing globalisation.

Alongside artistically experimental aspects of education, the ThinkingJewellery 'trademark' stands as a contextual leitmotif throughout the gemstones and jewellery study programme at Trier University/Idar-Oberstein campus. The aims of ThinkingJewellery comprise scientifically oriented research as well as discourse on the historical and societal interconnection of jewellery. Highlights are the ThinkingJewellery symposia, which are now accompanied by a series of periodicals. The new series discusses contributions to a contemporary theory of jewellery beyond disciplinary boundaries or typical categories. The texts envisioned for ThinkingJewellery 2 include 'On the Cultural History of the Gemstone', 'Goethe on Colour' and 'Cold Shine - Empty Glamour, on Jeff Koons's Celebration Series', which are based on lectures from the 2017 symposium.

Gemstones have always been, since time immemorial, heavily charged with meaning and have even been regarded as magical objects. For that reason they have also been an art medium since the early modern age and have shaped as art symbols - in the form of the crystal - both Romanticism and Modernism, for example in the works of Caspar David Friedrich, Lyonel Feininger and many more. In the latter half of the twentieth century, not only have such artists as Bernd Munsteiner, Ute Eitzenhöfer and Bernhard Schobinger rediscovered the gemstone; through the Hochschule für Edelstein und Schmuck Trier/Idar-Oberstein and other similar specialist institutions it is also undergoing a revival in today's art production - right up to Damien Hirst.Text in English and German.