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SEVEN SCENES - Pierre Cavalan
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| Pierre Cavalan trained as a jeweller in the Paris National Jewellery School
(BJO) France and graduated in 1979. He arrived in Australia in 1980 and,
after a period of employment with jeweller Russel Mc Colough in Sydney,
began to produce his own work assemblage from a wide range of components,
including badges, insignia and found objects as well as gemstones and commercial
jewellery elements. Cavalan's work was initially a reaction to what he perceived
as the elitism of the great French jewellery firms, and the conservatism
of commercial jewellery in general with its emphasis on prestige and preciousness.
These latter concerns were informing the work of other jewellers at the
time and there was a widespread movement in contemporary jewellery for the
use of non-precious materials and found objects however, Cavalan's work
was, and remains, highly distinctive in content and form. He juxtaposes
elements such as lobster claws or cigarette lighters, with elegant designs
that evoke regalia or elaborate formal jewellery. Other narrative jewellery
based on assemblages of found objects usually have a more industrial aesthetic. |
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| This body of work had its genesis in an Australia Council residency in
1996 in Los Angeles which provided an opportunity for Cavalan to envisage
and commence an ambitious and complex project. Seven Scenes is the outcome
and is a virtuoso collection of his work. Five years in the making, it features
a series of seven large-scale neckpieces each of which has a reference to
one of the seven Deadly Sins, the seven Chakras and the seven colours of
the rainbow. Each piece is carefully composed of elements that contribute
a clue to the multi-layered content of the piece which ranges from mythological
allusions to the cross-cultural numerological mysticism associated with
the number seven. |
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| This body of work had its genesis in an Australia Council residency in
1996 in Los Angeles which provided an opportunity for Cavalan to envisage
and commence an ambitious and complex project. Seven Scenes is the outcome
and is a virtuoso collection of his work. Five years in the making, it features
a series of seven large-scale neckpieces each of which has a reference to
one of the seven Deadly Sins, the seven Chakras and the seven colours of
the rainbow. Each piece is carefully composed of elements that contribute
a clue to the multi-layered content of the piece which ranges from mythological
allusions to the cross-cultural numerological mysticism associated with
the number seven. |
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| A humorous element underpins much of Cavalan's work . For example the
neckpiece White is connected with the sin of Pride. The deadly sins were
first formulated in the 4th century but were ratified and reduced to their
final number of seven in the 6th century by Pope Gregory the Great. The
sins were against love and in their ranking pride was considered the worst.
White includes a badge with the words 'vice-president'. In this context
its former denotation of rank becomes a witty reference to the severity
of the sin. Historically each sin has an association with a particular colour,
organ or animal, but Cavalan has devised his own connections as follows: |
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| 1 |
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Red / sloth / coccyx |
| 2 |
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Orange / lust / genitals |
| 3 |
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Yellow / gluttony / stomach |
| 4 |
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Green / envy / chest |
| 5 |
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Blue / anger / throat |
| 6 |
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Purple / greed / mind |
| 7 |
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White / pride / crown |
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