The Union Between Object and Body
The rhythm created by the works of Elisabetta Duprè resembles the changing of seasons, day and night, a beating heart, a piece of music. Dozens, even hundreds of tiny pieces of silver and gold, small cubes, cups, flat bars, occur in a sequence, as if they were marking time. With your eyes closed, you would be able to imagine the ticking of a clock or the swinging of a metronome.
Her work is essentially based on minute detail. The pieces are perfect in their imperfection, where manual techniques are very clear and ooze from every pore. Irregular edges, round-shaped elements that are not perfectly round and squares that are not quite square, where apparent randomness becomes fundamental.
Duprè loves metal and over time has established an intimate relationship with it. She has a profound knowledge of the secrets of silver and gold and avails herself of traditional bench techniques to make her pieces. The tools you will find in her workshop, traditionally used by goldsmiths over centuries, are employed with great expertise to make jewellery that is anything other than classic.
Movement has been introduced in her latest works, through the creation of mobile structures formed by many minute pieces of silver, left white or blackened, held together by tiny rings, as if they had been sewn. Elements are repeated and grow to form mobile volumes that follow the body's movement. They are soft structures that plunge into the surrounding space. Hence, just like in a dance where the harmony of movement is the result of unity between two or more people moving together, likewise in her jewellery, harmony arises from the perfect union between object and body.
An innate sense of simplicity comes through and derives, perhaps, from Duprè’s German origins. Chromatically sober, linear forms, of great communicative power. Her works speak an elementary, rigorous language, reflecting her way of being.