Manon van Kouswijk's working methodology explores and translates archetypal jewellery forms and motifs through a range of materials and processes. An integral aspect of her practice is the framing and contextualising of her work through the making of exhibitions and artist publications, often in collaboration with other practitioners.

Manon likes to think that it’s possible to reinvent jewellery, despite the fact that its archetypal forms and motifs haven’t fundamentally changed throughout its long history. She views these archetypes as templates that she uses for her translations of the jewellery types she works from (for example the beaded necklace). The traces of the making process are often visible in Manon’s work. The imperfection of the handmade, present in marks of fingerprints and moulds, is an integral part of the objects. While originating from a conceptual approach to making at the same time her works embrace the sensual qualities of jewellery objects in the use of colour, their weight, sound, rhythm and material expression.

Manon van Kouswijk's necklaces are reconstructed somehow, anyhow, from everything she can remember, from her encyclopaedic knowledge of bead necklaces. We remember too - which explains why they all look so familiar.

Benjamin Lignel