HANNAH KEEFE
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hannah Keefe studied jewelry and metal smithing at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Each piece uses an original process with brass chain and silver solder, yielding different shape variations, kinetic details and visual geometries.
ARTIST STATEMENT
This work is part of an ongoing exploration of a process I developed while
trying to break the rules usually observed in ‘proper’ gold-smithing. By
letting molten solder bleed into links of chain I am at once practicing ‘bad’
technique and perfecting a new one.
I approach each piece like an architect, one who doesn’t struggle against
gravity, but relies upon it. When these pieces are hung the chaos that was a
pile of countless chains turns into a collectivist harmony. The solder acts
like girders and when certain chains are removed empty spaces are framed
and air can move throughout.
When drowning these links with solder I am conscious of the dynamic of
control and release, of freezing and thawing, of hard and soft. The chain
itself always hangs downwards, that is its graceful nature, but I interrupt its
cascade with forks, dams, and eddies. I play with it and then let it go on its
way.