CGD

Anna Rusínová has recently graduated from the K.O.V. studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, quickly becoming one of the major figures of contemporary jewel-making and art design. Her work destabilizes traditional aesthetic norms, oscillating between historical references, organic forms and the influence of digital culture. This makes her objects stand out from contemporary trends in that they exude an air of nostalgia rather than the energy of futurism. They sometimes feel almost natural, while at other times they have a phantasmal air about them.

Anna’s work includes stand-alone solitaires as well as more liberal objects and artistic installations. She most often uses silver as her expressive medium, although she also works with glass and fabrics. Some of her works straddle the boundary between jewelry and fashion – they are unique hybrids, meticulous in their imperfections and irreverent towards rigid jewelry-work. Her art projects are also interesting, for example the I Swapped My Silk Slippers for Lead Ones project for Nika street gallery, the NostalgiamaXXing object reminiscent of a suit of armor for a contemporary Joan of Arc, or the supernatural Pacifier which she made for Spektrum gallery.

How does our understanding of receding realities change, and how will people of the future view the objects we make today? – these are the questions Anna Rusínová asks in every piece she makes. “I try to find, transcend and expand the borders and limits of the human physical form. The objects can thus be viewed as an organic expansion of the body or even its new inhabitants. When does something beautiful and fragile become disgusting and repugnant? Where does the border between my reality and your reality originate? How does the past create our present, and vice versa?”

Danica Kovářová