‘A typewritten card gives a date of 1500 BC. And adds a question mark. The necklace is of golden tubes strung on a thread. Each tube is no longer than a child’s fingernail is wide. After each third tube, a beech leaf hangs from the thread, a leaf the same size as a real one. But the leaves of the necklace are of a gold beaten thinner than any natural leaf could be. And on them the leaf’s veins are incised, each incision shining like a platinum hair.
Worn around the neck, the leaves would flutter against her sternum and collarbone as she walked. When she stood still, they would stir as she breathed, light and metallic, with a crisp sound. To wear this necklace would be to feel protected by every leaf of every tree in the world.'1
GSM&J respects the history and legacy of our field but also believes in the importance of expanding the field. This is why we have shifted the focus of our subject from purely object-based to a wider scope, questioning and exploring issues centred on the human condition.
1 John Berger, To the Wedding, Bloomsbury, London, 2009 [1995], p. 107