Amber trip-Art contest

XVII International Baltic Jewellery Show Amber Trip 2020 announced an art jewellery contest.

Polluted oceans, burning Amazon forests, unable to breathe Delhi, Earth's warming. And how many side-by-side processes that are disrupting the coexistence of nature and mankind! Ecological disharmony - like a threatening dragon, who is constantly coming to our castle to take his victims ...

What vision do we have in this confrontation? Are we surrender ourselves to fear and anxiety or are we taking a more conscious and active position? Global and everyday view, thoughts, words, and actions that turn into CREATION that can influence the future.

The winners of Art Jewellery Contest “ECOSIGHT” 2020

Grand Prix

Vita Pukštaitė - Bružė (Lithuania)

"The end of the foot - bridge"These are works about a frightening sense of insecurity

Award in the category of amber works

Soonin Han (South Korea)

"We=I"

Current ecological disharmony demands us to restore harmony, which can be possible by recognizing and restoring the order and solidarity innate to all creatures. Each circle seems separate but is connected creating a big one, universe and the overlaid amber shows the order and connectedness of the ecosystem, which can only be seen when all are together.

Award in the category of objects

Rachael Colley (United Kingdom)

"Sha-green"

Sha-Green series presents food waste, in the form of discarded citrus fruit peel, as a sustainable, biodegradable, vegan alternative to the traditionally animal-based luxury decorative surface shagreen (ray or shark skin). This scented material comes alive when worn; as it is warmed by the body it emits a subtle fruity fragrance. The jewellery's limited lifespan highlights the fleeting and complex nature of human existence and the passing of time, suggesting the ultimate end that conventional jewellery circumvents through its endurance.

Award in the category of jewellery

Chien-Yu Liu (Taiwan)

"One Moment to Another"

Everything in the era is changing massively. Through industrialization of mass production and the rapid transformation in technology, access becomes easier. And therefore people become careless to materials. In terms of it, what explicitly is the value we perceive in sustainability? By virtue of the open-ended process in fabricating arts jewellery, I attempt to respond to the interrogation. Through hammering on the industrialized medium layered back and forth, a breathing space is structured in between the materiality and the artisanal efforts. Is the preciousness relies on the metaphysical dimension? I anticipate arousing the discussion.

Award in the category of jewellery

Rasa Jundulaitė (Lithuania)

"The very first"

Peters Ruudt said during his presentation that the very first bracelet he made was "perfect". This wooden ring is my very first piece of jewelry. I never published it - it was quiet in the box, but to me, it was always perfect. Pure in its simplicity, such an element of pristine nature that I could barely touch.

Award of the audience

Charlotte Parent (France)

"Plumbing"

Us, humans, are taking what we want from nature to use it for ourselves without any care. We consume, transform and destroy. Resources are running out. The impact of mankind on Earth reached such a breaking point that scientists developed the concept of Anthropocene to describe the new geological area. We think that we just have to turn on the tap to get everything we want. But letting it open, we are drying up the natural resources. This piece symbolizes the process of transformation from raw material to something which can be destruction or beauty, or both. It talks about human squeezing natural resources like a fruit, but also about the harmony we are capable of. Raw amber is absorbed into meaningless plumbing to flow like a shiny drop in the precious cup of Civilization.

Jury diplomas are also awarded to:

Ieva Laskevičiūtė (Lithuania)

"Pandora's Cake" - for the alternative of using the material

Recipe: a little sugar, water, eggshells, flour, silver. Slightly burning forests, polluted oceans, deadly viruses, and melting glaciers. We bake the cake at the highest temperature, speeding up the process with a sprinkle of human indifference. We decorate the baked cake with poster glitter and colorful promises. Pandora's cake baked. All brooches are made according to this recipe.

Yaroslava Kellermann (Poland)

"Way" - for rendering harmony of water and nature

Water is the most precious of all resources mankind possesses. Though the share of water in a human body varies from 70-80 % to even more (brain 83 %, blood 90 %) being crucial for our life, we constantly contribute to its disappearing. The problem I am concerned most of all is not only plastic in drinking water, but the endangered existence of water at all. Have you thought about how much drinking water is available at the very moment you are reading these lines? Have you thought about how it is possible to save more water? Have you thought about how many rivers are left in your region? If one simply compares current photographs of rivers made from space and the ones a couple of years ago, one surely would notice a striking difference. At this point I would like to quote John Clague at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia: “Most people think of climate change as gradual and its consequences as gradual, but one of the things we were able to show here is you can produce some rather dramatic changes, suddenly”. I do not think we realize and understand irreversible changes may happen any minute now. But I do believe that for some parts of our ecological system, for example, for a small river of your neighborhood, or for a big one, which is the symbol of the entire nation, there is still a chance. I do believe it is up to us to decide what way to choose: destroy our environment and be destroyed as well or to change our destructive habits in order to survive.

Joshua Kosker (USA)

"Copal (Gold Edition)" - for an elegant alternative to amber and a sense of humor

How do objects shape experiences and, in turn, how can actions imprint mean on the material world? Separated from or existing without the body, soap serves no purpose and is generally discarded once it reaches a certain state of reduction. Transformed through the daily ritual of bathing, these forms convey a tactile, intimate relationship between owner and object. By reconnecting this material to the body as jewelry, I evoke a sensual experience—one that connects viewers and wearers alike to their personal and collective experiences—with intentions of a more private dialogue. It is likely that the soap will continue to change over time through natural wear and environmental factors, again reshaping the visual history and value of these momentary, mutable forms. Developed and activated by the body, these everyday artifacts take on a precarious function as jewelry—wavering somewhere between raw and manufactured. The presence of the material serves as a reminder of its own corporeal erosion and this physiological exchange.

Anna Tereshchenkova (Russia)

"Bird and Fish" - for the visual declaration of the danger of plastic to the wildlife

Animals, birds, and fish swallow plastic and die. Humans have polluted the entire planet with plastic. There are many horrific photos on the Internet where we can see dead birds and fishes whose stomachs are filled with plastic. Birds make nests out of plastic, they feed their chicks with it, taking plastic for a worm... I think that now one of the main tasks of human civilization is the fight against garbage.

Alain Roggeman (Belgium)

“Broken and reclaimed” - for the balance of thought and composition in jewelry

My piece is made of reclaimed material (as I usually do). In this case, I used broken pieces and reclaimed silver wire. Repairing, renewing, renovating, restoring is an ecological, eco-friendly and economical way of working. Thus, having respect as much as possible for our ecosystem.

Ilze Egle (Latvia)

"Skies are crying about the Earth's warming" - for the paradox of thought and artistic expression

Annarita Bianco (Italy)

"3020| Graft series" - For Concept Concern and Sustainable Expression in Jewelry

Human beings are part of nature as they are constantly surrounded by it and interact with it. Through observation, they have obtained information, extrapolated general principles and built up knowledge over the centuries. If for centuries the “Artificial“ and the “Natural” have represented two opposite polarities, the theories of Postmodernism have highlighted that this distinction has been surpassed: mankind, with its technological inventions, make up a “New Nature”, hybrid networks in which natural elements and artifacts produced by mankind are indissolubly connected. As boundaries have been blurred, we have entered Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch wherein humans are actively altering the Earth’s geology and ecosystems. It marks a turning point in the relationship between the human race and nature as we know it. New elements, specimens, rocks and minerals formed by the agglutination of a mix of molten plastic debris and natural sediments are coming into view as the first effects of this changing natural history. They represent tangible evidence of this “post-natural” scenario of the Anthropocene. Could these new formations become our future fossils, as a record of our time here on planet Earth? Could they stand the test of time for millions of years? 3020 project is a possible scenario that depicts a future 1000 years from now. It tries to imagine how e-waste, the physical debris of the immaterial digital era, interferes in geological processes. Inspired by three main lithogenetic processes - sedimentary, magmatic and metamorphic - I have created three different kinds of synthetic rocks, which include USB cable waste. These cables are made up of an alloy of copper and silver. Cut, oxidized, heated and granulated, the transformed wire is embedded in an epoxy resin casting, that recalls natural inclusion in rocks. In order to underline this unconventional combination silver structure is grafted into new mineral. The packaging is inspired by wooden pallets used to transport minerals, geological and archeological finds. Graphical patterns printed on translucent paper represent an attempt to put together digital features and natural rock texture: a symbiosis of natural and post-digital fascination, a translation to stress that in technological Era we constantly live crossing the border between the physical realm and the virtual one, material space, and cyberspace. Parallel layers inspired by sedimentary rock are translated into a corrupted signal, a glitch noise pattern. Porous volcanic rock recalls a dotted pattern that refers to hole-punched cards used in early computers to contain digital data. Deformation waves typical in metamorphic rocks become a wind of bits, a visual representation of digital dataflow filling Hertzian space.

Brigita Rodaitė (Lithuania)

“Gardens” - for the sensitivity to nature and the aesthetics of the composition

The vital energy from the earth reaches through the roots, trunk, and branches of a tree into a tiny bud, which immediately turns into a unique green leaf looking into the light. The hot radiant power of the sun will flood the tree and it will blossom, blossom, ripen ... It's like an axis connecting the Dungeon, Earth, and Heaven. He is the Tree of Life, the strong pillar of the world, reaching into the depths of the invisible. Everything is inseparable. All in one... The tree connects this and the other worlds - living and having gone beyond the sea. It connects the past, present, and future. It is limitless in time and space. He was, is, and will be ... HONEY. TREE OF LIFE. THE WOOD OF THE WORLD. THE COLUMN OF THE UNIVERSE. SPACE AXIS. As we call it, He is the indivisible whole of the Universe. All that is alive and inanimate is He. Man is also a part of HIM.

Simona Martinkutė (Lithuania)

Darius, who started from himself - for supporting the ecological initiative

Darius, 23 years old from Klaipeda. Daily collecting litter on the Baltic beaches. Finding everything: bottles, plastic bags, tires, furniture, household appliances… From the seashore to sorting trash. A young man who cares about the connection between the environment and nature. Thanks to Darius, who started with himself. One can inspire hundreds.

Eglė Širvytė (Lithuania)

“Full house of the rain” - for creative subtlety

We are overcrowded. The relentless desire for control and possession destroys our harmony. Between the instant necessities, the shiny showcases that change every day, the emotion-aware emotions of actresses, we forget that we're not about it, it's not about it. So few. Only compassion and touch. Empathies for man, grass, flower, beetle. Finally, when our homes burst from excess, we will pray for rain to wash away our tears.

Teresa Dantas (Portugal)

“Babel” - for the visuality of ecological problems

Babel It's chaos !!! The slab (gray resin) that symbolizes the path sinks into an endless cliff. The house associated with it goes the same way, spreading out into the surrounding space. Attached to it the tile (amber) resists. Hope wraps this dynamic process of renewal (linen tow).

Algina and Rolandas Žalimai (Lithuania)

"I see flying storks" for romance, simplicity and sustainability

Same linen - year after year. It was covered by our ancestors - used for food - without harming the environment, in harmony with nature. It was raised by every family, hand-worked: no manufactory, no industry, not even a tractor. Human hands alone. Fabric is woven on a primitive machine, hand-polished amber, and a wooden brooch. Year after year as our ancestors did. The technique repeats itself ... Like the storks that fly every year ...

Peiheng Huang (France)

“Tree hole crossing” - for its sensitivity to natural disasters and its metaphorical presentation in jewelry

The forest fires in Australia have not been completely extinguished so far. Countless animals have been displaced or even burned to death. Even if people try to rescue them, they can only save a small part of their lives. If the tree hole in the forest is a space-time tunnel that can travel through time and space, then the animals ran into the hole while avoiding the fire and went to another space-time, wouldn't they need to die? This work uses waste paper to make a tree hole. Amber represents another time and space in the tree hole. Black wool with golden filaments is used as a chain represents the vines of the burned tree in the fire which can serve as a medium to connect the two time and space.

Jury commission's members of the art jewellery contest "Ecosight" 2020

Laima Kėrienė – Head of the Jury (Lithuania)

Lithuanian metal artist, member of Lithuanian Artist‘s Association, professor in Vilnius Academy of Arts Metal Art and Jewellery Department. Interest fields: small plastics, sacramental art, art jewellery. Is an active participant of metal symposiums, group exhibitions.

Pille Veljataga (Lithuania)

VELJATAGA Pillė is a PhD of humanities, a research fellow at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, the member of the Lithuanian Artists' Association, art critics. Research interests: history of Lithuanian aesthetics, contemporary vizual art and designe. Publisched more than thirty articles, moust of them abouth the metal art and jewellery, participated in Exhibition Jury Commissions.

Darijus Gerlikas (Lithuania)

Jeweller, founder of jewellery school "VILNENSIS", visiting associate professor at the Department of Design, Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Giedymin Jablonski (Poland)

Giedymin Jablonski born 1946 in Gdansk, Poland.Currently he works as visiting professor at The Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw (Poland), and at Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania). Since 1970 he is active in the field of art working as freelance artist, teacher, curator, writer, etc. Although he works in different media, his main field remained the art of jewellery.

GJ showed his works at numerous exhibitions among others in: Legnica, London, Manchester, Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanau, Eutin, Helsinki, Maastricht, Sofia, Vienna, Reykjavik, Stavanger, Florence, Barcelona, Santiago de Compostela, Mexico, Moscow, St Petersburg, Ribnitz-Damgarten, Warsaw, Cracov, Poznan etc.

Henrik Kihlman (Finland)

Master silversmith, jewellery designer BA, director of the Finnish Goldsmith Association, magazine's Baltic Jewellery News editor. A history of 20 years of entrepeneurship in own gallery/workshop 1990 - 2010.

Rasma Pušpure (Latvia)

Latvian jewellery artist, member of Latvian Jewellery Art Association, lecturer at Art Academy of Latvia, Metal Design Department. Interest fields: art jewellery and jewellery design. An active participant of international artist residencies and group exhibitions.

Participated 75 authors with over 80 amazing art works from around the world (Taiwan, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Iran, Poland, Turkey, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, South Korea, Netherlands, Australia, Mexico, Latvia, Greece, France, Austria, Belarus and Lithuania).