Creative Links: Narrative Jewellery - Mark Fenn and Jack Cunningham Tell Tales (Bite-sized Film)
Creative Links: Narrative Jewellery (Bite-sized)
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What is this talk about?
Every piece of jewellery tells a story. Narrative jewellery embodies the tale its maker wants to share and creates new dialogues with wearer and viewer alike. Following the publication of Narrative Jewellery: Tales from the Toolbox, by Mark Fenn, with a foreword by Jack Cunningham, in this Creative Links talk Mark and Jack share and discuss their experiences of making, researching, wearing and debating the nature of narrative jewellery.
This video is part of the Creative Links talks series and took place in October 2019 at the Goldsmiths’ Centre.
Who are the speakers?
Mark Fenn is a maker and curator of narrative jewellery. He has been making for over thirty years and holds a degree in silversmithing and jewellery design from the University of the Creative Arts UK. The narrative and personal inform his studio work. Fenn creates commissioned work and small annual collections, and offers wedding ring making days where he tutors couples on how to make each other’s wedding rings, helping them to create their story. His work has been shown widely, including at Christies and Goldsmiths. He lives in rural Wales with his wife and two dogs.
Professor Jack Cunningham PhD would describe himself as a contemporary narrative jeweller. Relationships, place and memory, are factors of particular significance in the dialogue present in his jewellery. Equally important in the process of communicating his ideas are the materials incorporated, which include found objects and ready-mades. As an academic he held the post of Lecturer, then Head of the Silversmithing and Jewellery Department at The Glasgow School of Art (1990 – 2008). In 2008 Cunningham became Head of the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University, a post he held between 2008 and 2014. In 2017 he was Visiting Professor at Kolding School of Design, Denmark, and is currently Visiting Professor at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. His work is held in numerous public collections, including; the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the Crafts Council Collection, the Royal Scottish Museum - Edinburgh, and the Museum of Decorative Arts - Montreal.