Art Diary

February 4, 2015

Dynamic spaces contained within small jewelry

Hitomi Kitamura, Principal Investigator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

The jewelry designs of Minato Nakamura (1947-) may seem excessive for some: neck ornaments that cover your shoulders like armor, and rings with jewels that look as though they would fall off your fingers. You might wonder how you would put it on, but contrary to appearances, they fit quite comfortably when you put them on.

The production of creative jewelry started after World War Ⅱ in Japan. In order to apply the traditional metal jewel-making techniques to a modern lifestyle and fashion, the traditional methods had to be re-examined with a modern perspective. Additionally, the shapes and form of the jewelry became more abstract and new materials were tested. Design trends were changing as well, all leading to a gradual shift towards new jewelry. Minato Nakamura is known as the first Japanese jewelry maker to embrace these new changes.

The whimsical shapes created by lines, faces, and spheres marry perfectly with the sculpturing that Nakamura does. She decided to become a jewel maker after learning about sculpturing in university and trying to sculpt small abstract shapes.

However, the relationship between sculpture and jewelry was not as simple as adjusting the size and making it bigger for sculptures and smaller for jewelry. After a number of trials and errors, she realized that sculpting and jewel making were completely different things. Since then, she has separated her workspaces as well as her presentation areas, so that the two forms of art are displayed separately.

Her jewelry focuses on the abstract form and manages to evoke a feeling of expansive space in physically small jewelry. In this collection, this quality is displayed through jewelry made of silver. Nakamura's unique perspective was formed by coming face-to-face with the constriction and gravitas of wearing jewelry, through the transformation of squares to spheres and lines to surfaces. In this unique perspective, the space created when putting on the accessories becomes the piece of art.

Recently, Nakamura has talked about how the worlds of sculpture and jewelry are about to intersect. How has Nakamura's jewelry changed under the influence of sculpture? In this exhibit, you can see for yourself how his jewelry changed over the years, by following the 60 pieces of jewelry through time. You will also see specially commissioned sculptures made to fit the exhibit space. We hope you enjoy the jewelry and how they pack so many dynamic spatial qualities into such a small space.