Lebanese jewelry shifts from fashion to art.
Summary: Beirut is a city of art and of architecture. Everywhere you look billboards advertise the latest in luxurious architectural design.BEIRUT: Beirut is a city of art and of architecture. Everywhere you look billboards advertise the latest in luxurious architectural design and it sometimes seems a new art gallery opens every week.
Now Beirut has a new space which combines the ethos of an art gallery with a special architectural design -- the DehabJewellery Gallery, which recently opened in Gemmayzeh. "The jewelry industry in Lebanon is the No. 1 industry," says the gallery's art director, Simone Kosremelli. "We export a lot of jewelry from Lebanon because we have very fine workmanship here ... but the production here is totally commercial and really uninteresting, so I thought: we have the workmanship, we have the designers -- let's try to do something different. I really want to create a body of Lebanese designers who will have a place where they can publicly display their stuff."
Kosremelli is herself a jewelry designer, though she trained as an architect, and her designs will form a permanent part of the gallery's exhibition. The gallery is also running a solo exhibition of work by designer Dina Kamal, who also trained as an architect.
"I know many architects who have done jewelry design," says Kosremelli. "Architects work for the human body, and they really do know sizes. It's also about how to use a material. Whether gold or stone, again it's what an architect does, so the know-how and the attitude is the same. I think that's why architects are often interested in jewelry design."
Kamal's collection, titled "Dinakamal DK01: the funKtional series," on show until June 3, features two separate collections. On one side of the cozy gallery, arranged in three functional black showcases, are a series of rings from her "Pnkyrng Collection," based around three simple designs.
The three designs -- one a simple band with a circular front-piece, one a broad band with one side flattened, the third a series of 10 thin rings, to be purchased as a collection -- are all available in a range of five shades of gold, with or without diamond pavage, and in four different textures: shiny, matte, brushed, or coarsely brushed.
The rings are intended to be a contemporary revival of the old-fashioned signet ring, to be worn on the little finger by both men and women.
The second half of Kamal's collection forms the functional, as opposed to merely decorative, part of the collection. It includes items fit for everyday use -- glasses chains, magnifying glasses, cufflinks and money clips -- all made of precious metals in a variety of sleek, ultra-modern designs.
The pieces are simple yet beautifully produced -- their appeal lies in Kamal's attention to detail. Little touches, such as a tiny row of delicate pink rubies set into the top of the stem of a gold magnifying glass pendant, give each piece a luxurious twist while maintaining their elegant simplicity.
Kosremelli's work is more complex. Her latest collection "Forget-Me-Not," is a series of blue agate pendants, each of which has a space on the back to put a picture, Kosremelli explains, so that the wearer can carry a picture of whoever they want secretly close to their heart.
Her collection also includes her trademark cubic rings, with a hole through each of the six sides so that they can be worn any way around.
"This is a cube ring that I've been wearing for 30 years, that I designed," she says. "Everybody was telling me 'I want one, I want one,' so I decided to produce them. We have three colors: white gold, yellow gold and pink gold, and then we added a series with some diamonds on one face, so you can wear it with diamonds or without."
Some of her pieces are one-of-a-kind, designed around an individual stone. Others, such as the cube rings, are limited edition with only five available in each metal.
The gallery, which takes its name from the Arabic word for gold, opened in March, and Kamal's collection is the second solo exhibition after Kosremelli's "Forget-Me-Not" show. However, Kosremelli's plans for future exhibitions include more than just solo shows.
"Our next exhibition is very funny," she says. "It will be 12 different designers -- each one will create two or three objects just for men. Father's Day is in June so I thought it would be interesting have a 'Just for Men' exhibition.
"I want to do exhibitions with themes," she says. "I want to do an exhibition with antique jewelry -- if somebody has a collection of antique jewelry I'd be interested in showing it because again you have fantastic workmanship. People will learn visually about these things, because you don't see them here. Nobody exhibits old jewelry."
Group exhibitions will showcase the work of young Lebanese designers who are just starting out.
"We have Lebanese fashion designers who are becoming world famous now," she says, "so we might find a fantastic jewelry designer in Lebanon. Maybe he doesn't know he's good, but he could become famous ... why not?"
The reaction from the public has been good so far, she says. "People are amazed -- the concept is so interesting -- to treat jewelry as art, more than as commercial jewelry. Historically it was like this -- if you go into the tombs of the pharaohs you find beautiful jewelry that were pieces of art and I think we are going back to that."
Dina Kamal's "funKtional series" is on display at the DehabJewellery Gallery in Gemmayzeh until June 3. For more information visit www.dehabjewellery.com or call 01-563-263.
Copyright 2012, The Daily Star. All rights reserved.
Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon) |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 7LEBA |
| Date: | May 11, 2012 |
| Words: | 949 |
| Previous Article: | Nurses warn of escalation if demands unmet. |
| Next Article: | Egypt front-runners trade blows over their pasts. |
| Topics: | |