11.01.07
Larsen & Lewers
– Jewellery Design from Australia
(Press release 11.1.2007)
The Australian jewellery designers Darani Lewers and Helge Larsen have a long history of collaboration. For over four decades they have had an innovative influence on one another, seeking new ideas.
Their works can now be seen at Design Forum in Helsinki where jewellery and photographs will be on display.
The works of Darani Lewers and Helge Larsen display a strong Baltic connection. Helge Larsen was born in Denmark, where he worked and displayed his designs, before he moved to Australia and joined Darani Lewers in 1961. Darani Lewers was born in Australia and taught by the Estonian master-jeweller Nina Ratsep, who had come to Australia as a refugee in 1949.
The works of jewellery on show at Design Forum Finland have been inspired by the metropolises of the world. They display allusions to the architecture of Paris, Chicago, Istanbul and Vienna and to the theory of urban form.
Larsen & Lewers have an exceptional ability to use the designs and patterns of cities and buildings to enhance the human body. They proceed from the consideration that a piece of jewellery must become a sculptural part of the wearer’s body and personality.
The jewellery also refers to the diversity of the world’s cultures and their interaction. Their relationship with the body occasionally differs from the established Western tradition of personal ornamentation. The exhibits include a ring extending over several fingers, earrings that turn into a head ornament and a necklace making its wearer a living work of sculpture. These works suggest analogies with traditional tribal cultures of Asia and Africa where ornament is an integral aspect of social order.
Larsen & Lewers – Jewellery Design from Australia,
12 January – 4 February 2007
Design Forum Finland, Space2, Erottajankatu 7, Helsinki
Open Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sun. Noon – 6 p.m.
Free entrance, exhibition information tel. +358 (0)9 6220 8132
For further information please contact:
Aila Kolehmainen, tel. +358 (0)9 6220 8121,
aila.kolehmainen@designforum.fi
Riikka Lehtonen, tel. +358 (0)9 6220 8132,
riikka.lehtonen@designforum.fi
Helge Larsen & Darani Lewers, darani.lewers@bigpond.net
