essay

on mark vaarwerk
by Tracey Clement

Round: a circle, a continuous line. No beginning, no end. A perpetual cycle: birth, growth, death and decay repeated over and over again. Energy is never lost. It just moves from one form to another: it is re used and re circulated. Recycled.
Mark Vaarwerk utilises this process, but the term is far too prosaic. What Vaarwerk does more closely resembles the mystery of transubstantiation, with an eco-friendly twist. Instead of turning water into wine, he converts rubbish into jewellery. Using innovation and flair, Vaarwerk recuperates disposable and discarded plastic containers; non-biodegradable evidence of our reckless consumer excesses. Plastic shopping bags become elegant necklaces. Bottles for shampoo, detergent, orange juice and milk are given a second chance as bright brooches with concentric rings of colour that echo the cyclic process of their creation. Like an alchemist or sorcerer, Mark Vaarwerk transforms base materials into precious jewels. In his hands the unwanted and undervalued becomes coveted and treasured; a fundamental act of magic, no smoke or mirrors needed.

Round: rings, necklaces and bangles wrapped around fingers, throats and wrists. A gentle encircling, a slight pressure, a caress. They stimulate proprioception: a heightened awareness of the body in space. Cool sliver warms as it slides against skin, smooth plastic traces bright lines across the flesh. Jewellery is a conduit, channelling sensation. Mark Vaarwerk knows instinctively that his jewels are involved in this intimate equation. Flexible, durable, delicate and bold, his work is meant to be worn.
Once on the body, Vaarwerk’s jewellery becomes a sensuous link between the physical and the psychological, a reminder that the mind is indeed corporeal; inseparable from lived experience. His jewels are both literally and figuratively light, they aren’t burdened with the weight of a strident manifesto, a closed book. They are porous, open: an act of collaboration, ready and willing to absorb the wearer’s ideas and emotions. Mark Vaarwerk’s jewellery beautifully and gracefully fulfils the roles of travelling companion and witness, silent partner and repository of memory.