London – Architect’s foray into fine jewelry
Europa Concorsi, Italy
By Suzy Menkes
‘It could become jewelry – this could become an object of desire,’ says Frank Gehry as he looks at models of the architectural work he has first drawn and then modeled by cutting and folding pieces of silver paper.
‘Frank Gehry’s Sketches’ – the movie bio made by the architect’s friend and Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack – embraces the iconic buildings, with their flowing lines and metallic finishes. But the film, which premiered in London last week, following on New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, does not show Gehry’s latest design project: fine jewelry.
In collaboration with Tiffany, the architect of Santa Monica Place, the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has brought his sculptural skills to the decorative arts. For the first time since Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso were tapped by Tiffany a quarter of a century ago, the American jeweler has come out with a ‘Frank Gehry’ collection. It includes silver fish dancing around a bracelet, brushed silver folded into a pendant and linear, interlocking cuffs. The more than 150-piece collection is as modern and streamlined as it is classic.
After its launch in Los Angeles, it was London’s turn last week to see the Tiffany creations in sterling silver, wood and stones, with chains snaking in silver or made from cord and rubber. The six separate collections with titles like ‘Torque,’ ‘Equus,’ ‘Fold’ and ‘Axis’ were shown at the after-party to the movie audience, which included Bob Geldof (who has one of the film’s witty lines about most architects deserving to be hit). Also present were Anthony Minghella, the rocker Nick Rhodes and Pollack himself, who said of his documentary: ‘I wanted it to be a conversation between two friends.’
The organic and angular shapes referred to on screen by Thomas Krens, director of the Soloman R. Guggenheim Foundation (which commissioned Gehry’s building in Bilbao) are reflected in the twisting curved planes and undulating surfaces of the jewelry. The pieces, including some distinctly masculine propositions, start at £90, or about $160.
Gehry drew the parallels between his different disciplines, saying: ‘For me, architecture and design are about the process. Sketching three-dimensional models and conceptualizing different possibilities – this is the essence of creating. The impulse is always the same: to discover new forms that have a natural flow and a relevance to contemporary life.’
