Unfold by Phoebe Porter

非常感谢Phoebe Porter将项目介绍和项目图片授权gooood发行。更多请至：Phoebe Porter on gooood 
Appreciation towards Phoebe Porter for providing the following description:

Phoebe Porter创作出了这些独一无二的钛金属手镯，她将1mm厚的钛金属片做成能够表达钛金属特性和精度的，适合佩戴的几何形体。依靠简单的工具进行艰苦的手工制作。各种链接的节点非常优雅，部分使用到了铝垫片。手镯主要是正方形和圆形两种形状，通过各种手法组合或连接，表达出钛金属的魅力以及张力。Phoebe Porter在自己的展览中，利用实物，图片和视频与大家分享了整个概念想法和进展过程，制作步骤。虽然这些手镯的造型独特，但是材料的厚度和尺寸恰到好处的轻盈和微妙，因此佩戴起来很舒适。Phoebe Porter认为首饰对人们来说很重要;它们作为礼物，纪念物和日常品表达了一个人的个性和观念。展览中分享的知识和观念，也是Phoebe Porter给大家的礼物。

Unfold Installation 2012
Craft Victoria
Bracelets (titanium, aluminium, stainless steel, 925 Silver), Tooling and Video
Images: James Braund

 

Unfold Installation 2012
Craft Victoria
Bracelets (titanium, aluminium, stainless steel, 925 Silver), Tooling and Video
Images: James Braund

Like a growing family tree the collection of works within Unfold has evolved over time. Their tectonic language is a function of Phoebe Porter’s intimate experience of the material, the making process, the bracelet and necessity of fit and above all comfort. Her knowledge of 1mm titanium sheet spans 10 years. Each bracelet is an expression of geometry that directly reflects the properties of titanium and the precision, accuracy and method needed to work such a strong metal. The strength of titanium makes it hard to work, but means it will retain each bracelet form and finish through the future life of the piece.

Phoebe’s steady hand is needed to guide the tools and custom-adapted machines to cut, fold, file and finish each bracelet. For this family of bracelets she envisioned complex tooling to automate her painstaking process. What was found instead was that simple combinations of hand and hammer meant she could change material thickness and width quickly, allowing her to work directly and test each individual piece without relying on complicated tooling.

Phoebe deliberately chooses to express each finishing point and fastening mechanism. This approach resonates through her past collections. The expression of rivets, seams, clasps, connections, joints and hand dyed anodised aluminum spacers are drawn forward through Unfold.

The square and the circle form the origins of the bracelets. Later generations balance these two forms together. Addition, subtraction, combination and reduction create each generation, as well as the necessary tension in the folded titanium for clasping, connection or release of the bracelet.

They imbue a sense of industrial parts that have an essential number of elements to make a greater machine work. The bracelets are refined Industrial. But they are not just that. Each is a parti or expression of essential elements, akin to a diagram. What is the diagram of? Depending on ones experience they may look like the plan of a building, an electrical circuit layout, a section through a loft, or (when placed together in multiples) like a series of city blocks.

Laid out together for Unfold they form a language that speaks of Phoebe’s generative approach. This welcomes us to witness the relationships and differences between each bracelet. It also gives insight into Phoebe’s inquisitive nature, generous spirit and openness to share her process. This is reinforced with the inclusion of tooling and video documentation in the exhibition, alongside the finished works. The video documentation is a beautiful collaboration with Sal Cooper. It reveals the rhythm of each step in Phoebe’s making process and captures her steady hand working with the tools and machines; moments hidden within each of the finished pieces.

Though unique in form, each bracelet shares a smoothness to touch and comfort to wear. The scale of the material thickness relates to the body, where the subtle balance of strength with lightness makes wearing effortless. Phoebe is acutely aware of the importance of jewellery in one’s life. They are gifts that mark important occasions and are living pieces that express a person’s interests, ideas of self and individuality. They live in the personal moments of the wearer.

Unfold ultimately shares the personal moments of Phoebe’s making process. Phoebe’s gift to us is the gift of knowledge; of personal insight, her process of discovery through making, refinement and sharing.

 

Unfold
Phoebe Porter

A solo exhibition of jewellery investigating the bracelet form using cut and folded
titanium sheet metal
October 19 – December 1 2012
Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

 

Unfold bracelets 2012
Titanium, aluminium, stainless steel, 925 Silver
Each 74 x 74 x 7mm
Images: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets 2012
Titanium, aluminium, stainless steel, 925 Silver
Each 74 x 74 x 7mm
Images: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets – Mirror #3, Mirror #2, Mirror #4 2012
Titanium, stainless steel,
Each 74 x 74 x 5mm
Image: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets – 45 Degrees #1, Internal, Centre 2012
Titanium, aluminium, 925 silver
Each 74 x 74 x 7mm
Image: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets – Internal, 45 Degrees #1 (detail) 2012
Titanium, aluminium, 925 silver
Each 74 x 74 x 7mm
Image: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets – Internal, External 2012
Titanium, aluminium, 925 silver
Each 66 x 62 x 7mm
Image: Andrew Sikorski

 

Unfold bracelets – Isolate, Overlap 2012
Titanium, aluminium, 925 silver
Each 67 x 67 x 7mm
Image: Matthew Butler

 

Unfold bracelets – 90 Degrees 2012
Titanium, aluminium, 925 silver
Each 67 x 67 x 7mm
Image: Andrew Sikorski

 

Stills from a video by Sal Cooper documenting the making of Unfold in collaboration with Phoebe Porter. Filmed in Phoebe Porter’s studio at the Abbotsford Convent 2012. Catalogue essay by Christina Waterson 2012

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