Artists in the exhibition come from around the world, and create works that range from large-scale sculpture to delicate jewelry. Alice Hope’s Untitled installation (above) takes small items of domestic refuse (used Budweiser beer tabs) and turns them into a large wall-piece, reminiscent of a portal. Paula Castillo also incorporates refuse into her works, though hers is industrial waste. Using computer modeling software, she creates intricate objects that she then painstakingly welds together, piece by piece. Tethered (below) is delicate yet dense, a web of washers and wire that is both organic and industrial.
More traditional works in heavy Heavy Metal include Swedish silversmith Petronella Eriksson’s Silver sake jug with cups. This set of beautiful flowing forms are an elegant reminder of the more refined uses of metals as a luxury material. Similarly, Cheryl Eve Acosta’s light, organic copper jewelry is so finely crafted that it seems to lift off of the body. San Francisco-based Katherine Vetne’s sculptural works play with these dueling notions of metal: femininity versus masculinity, industrial versus domestic. Selling the Dream consists of three lead crystal Avon pitchers, which have been reduced to a melted heap and then mirrored. Vetne has taken a dainty object of domesticity and rendered it useless, while still maintaining its beauty and elegance.
