Get Your Rocks On: Baselworld 2014 news

Baselworld 2014 is upon us. From 27 March to 3 April, the world’s glitziest trade show for watches, jewellery and precious stones will host over 2,000 exhibitors from over 45 countries and attract over 94,000 visitors to Switzerland's third city. 

The show is an annual opportunity for retail buyers, luxury journalists and industry bigwigs to gasp and stretch their eyes over the latest examples of ‘haute joaillerie’, with exhibitors sure to include the likes of Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels, the venerable French jewellers whose collections adorn the necks and wrists of the global superrich. 

Jewellery has long been established as a decorative craft of the highest order but less visible in Switzerland are the makers uniting the disciplines of art and jewellery in the latest crossover to hit our mash-up-loving culture.

On the one hand, we have artist-jewellers like Anna Hui, the Chinese-American designer whose ‘opus’ of 100 pieces of fine jewellery in high-carat gold and rare precious stones secured her an exhibition in the Louvre, and Shaun Leane, the British designer whose dramatic, sculptural pieces make no concessions to the decorative tradition. 

On the other, artists like Damian Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons, Mark Quinn and Michael Craig Martin are now producing pieces of wearable art that have become as collectible as their full-scale pieces. 

From shells and stones to plants and bones, we've been adorning our bodies with objects since the dawn of time, for protection; as part of some kind of ritual, or even as a signifier of tribal status. When it came to the jewellery of the past, form would always be dictated by a function born out of necessity.

Fast-forward to the modern world, where whole magazines, art fairs, shops, and professions are dedicated to the making and wearing of jewellery, and you’ll find that it is form, rather than function, that is prized above all else. No longer concerning ourselves with its use, today we value a piece of jewellery for its aesthetic or, as design critic Stephen Bayley writes in his Baselworld 2014 Brand Book essay, its ‘brilliance’.

It was the artists of the twentieth century who blurred the lines between art and craft and paved the way for society’s latest obsession with wearable art. Perhaps referring to his own bejewelled lips brooch, the emperor of surrealism Salvador Dali explained "My object is to show the jeweller’s art in true perspective – where the design and craftsmanship are to be valued above the material worth of the gems." It’s a sentiment not only seen in the work of Picasso, Fontana, Braque, Lichtenstein, and Man Ray, but also in the works of some of today’s most cutting-edge artists.

Louisa Guinness was one of the first gallerists to collect and sell work by these 20th century greats (you can still see Picasso’s intensely satisfying gold medallions in her gallery in Conduit Street). Soon, she was commissioning contemporary artists to make similar pieces. From limited editions of Jeff Koons’ Rabbit Necklace (2005-2009), a pendant version of his great balloon-like bunnies, to Michael Craig Martin’s Light Bulb Earrings (2008), again, miniature versions of the artist’s signature work with light bulbs, each work that the gallery showcases is made by hand in London’s jewellery quarter Hatton Garden and, like any work of art, each piece is signed and numbered. 

Guinness’s work with Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn and Anish Kapoor not only busts the barriers between art and craft, but also redefines what it is that makes jewellery so valuable. While the value of a piece of jewellery was traditionally determined by the weight of materials used, the worth of each piece by Guinness’s artist collaborators is now determined by the name of the artist and the number of pieces per limited edition.‘’We view our works very much as sculpture,’’ a spokesperson for the galley said, ‘’all of our pieces are signed and number and many of our clients are principally art rather than jewellery collectors. Many of our pieces are as effective as small sculpture as they are a unique piece of jewellery.’’

Hirst has also teamed up with cool cat Robert Keith , the Californian jeweller to the stars. Playing on the artist’s pharmaceutical aesthetic, the collection features rosaries made from gold Valium tablets and rings composed out of Prozac pills. Launching this April, the collection will be sold through Hirst’s Other Criteria label and Mayfair store.

Another artist trying her hand at jewellery making is the architect Zaha Hadid, who created a set of hand adornments for Swiss jewellery brand Caspita, last November. A cross between a ring and a bracelet, the jewels are made from mesh-like lattices of gold filigree and are inspired by the intricate structure of human cells.  

So, what does this mean for the future of jewellery? Can we look forward to ever greater cross-pollination between the worlds of art and jewellery-making? What’s certain is that in an age when ‘design’ is valued above all else, in their jewels as in their furniture, clothing and houses, buyers will look for the maker’s mark – proof that an individual has poured his or her soul into each piece. 

And as Stephen Bayley concludes, ‘new technologies empower designers to push definitions further. The furnace, forge, hammer and leather apron of tradition are replaced by stereo-lithography and 3D-printing… Today there are no conceptual limits to what jewellery might be.  The only limitations are the practical ones of what our bodies and cash reserves might support.’

Want to see more? Members enjoy full access to all Culture Whisper's arts previews, exclusives and features. Click here to take our cultural quiz and get a month's free trial