Ebon Heath and Mona Ibrahim

Figure 2.4 - Heath, E. Ibrahim, M., (2009). Listening with the eyes. A leather body sculpture in Arabic.

This is a body art piece made by Ebon Heath in collaboration with Mona Ibrahim. In this piece, Heath used a long strip of leather with Arabic calligraphy laser cut out of it (see figure 2.4). I think that he used Arabic calligraphy in a unique way where, the message that he is trying to convey through his works are written on the pieces, quite literally. This is a very literal way to approach a topic but is something that I have considered before.

On his website, Heath (2009) explains, "My typographic sculptures liberate letters from the confines of the two-dimensional page (or screen) to express their unique content in three-dimensional space." Although Islamic art makes use of typography in more than just paper, I think his point is that the message you are trying to convey through your art can be represented as the art itself.

In an article from the My Modern Movement online media, Heath says, “If we adorn ourselves with positive mantras of words, how does that give us reminders of things to value and keep dear?” (Heath 2009). This statement resonates with me because it is my intention to create jewellery that represents the things I value, which is Islam and all of its teachings.

Contemporary Jewellery

There is a lot of discussion around the definition of contemporary jewellery. To help understand this concept, I will be looking at the definition of jewellery and contemporary jewellery as defined in papers written by Bruce Metcalf, Kenneth Quickenden and Roberta Bernabei, who talk about the functions of jewellery.

Bruce Metcalf wrote an essay titled "On the Nature of Jewellery" which defines the three major functions of jewellery: 

1. Indication of social status.

2. Redeemable/portable wealth.

3. Spiritual mediation. 

I consider these three functions discussed by Metcalf to relate to traditional jewellery, although not exclusively. Contemporary jewellery goes beyond just these three functions mentioned by Metcalf (1989), and now involves itself in current societal and artistic trends, extending the creation of jewellery to be more of a statement of artistic expression, and less of a practical piece of art, as explained by Anne Douglas (Quickenden 2000).
 
Roberta Bernabei looks at jewellery for the purpose of social commentary, where the jewellery becomes a vehicle for the delivery of prevalent social conditions. Sensitized jewellery, is the other topic that Bernabei touched on, where she explains that this kind of jewellery primarily deals with the sensitizing of materials into poetic artefacts (Bernabei 2011:33,37).

Looking at the functions mentioned above, I feel like my jewellery falls under the category of spiritual mediation but from a religious perspective. I am using my jewellery as a means of connection with Allah (God) which I consider to be worship in the form of creating. I also relate to Bernabei's concept of sensitized jewellery, because I have been very conscious about the kind of materials and techniques that I use in my jewellery as I intend for them to contribute to specific aesthetic I am trying to achieve.

What is "Aesthetic" ?

Let me tell you how it was explained to me; Lets look at the word compared to it's antonym, 'Anesthetic', which is the (temporary) "loss of sensation or awareness". So aesthetic being the opposite of this means "the ability to feel".
This way of defining the term is so clear. I thought it was related to something being 'appealing' but now i think of it as "provoking feeling"- This feeling can be anything positive to negative to even neutral.