The Low Countries. Jaargang 6

Beyond Elegance
Siegfried de Buck's Jewellery Designs

The career of Flemish designer Siegfried de Buck (1949-) only really took off when he won the East Flanders Provincial Prize for Artistic and Decorative Crafts for silverware in 1978. Before that he had made cire perdue (or lost wax) jewellery, a skill he had learned in Maredsous and Strasbourg. True innovation revealed itself shortly after the presentation of the prize; it took the form of the cautious use of non-precious materials such as Plexiglas. In 1979 De Buck began making jewellery which in terms of design derives straight from the basic form of Plexiglas rods and bars. Typologically speaking, however, his productions were still classical, though they did provide a foretaste of what was to come. Two salient elements - his striving for perfect beauty and his love of the technical and ergonomic - characterise his work right up until 1997, and even then they do not disappear altogether. Siegfried de Buck is always looking for new techniques, which he tries out till a new form emerges. This experimentation with combinations of non-precious materials like Plexiglas, steel, rubber, wood and at one time even elephant hair, with materials such as silver, gold or precious stones, is a constant in his oeuvre. He also sets great store by the functionality of his jewellery. Each piece is a gem of technical virtuosity. And since jewellery is intended to adorn the wearer, the aesthetic dimension is of course very important too. De Buck, then, is driven by the desire to create a form that is technically and aesthetically perfect, but also wearable and beautiful.

In 1981 he started employing pure silver-working techniques again and using materials like black rubber, Plexiglas and elephant hair. This produced clean designs which he subjected to a series of successful experiments. As a result of these, he began using black rubber and transparent colourless Plexiglas in combination with gold. This inspired a series of pieces of jewellery of which the highlights are a pendant and ring that are carefully studied in terms of form. Consisting of a black, natural rubber circle contained in a gold triangle, the whole is affixed to a black rubber cord. This set is now a classic of the contemporary jewellery scene in Belgium and beyond. Another magnificent piece is a bracelet made from drawn gold

Siegfried de Buck, Pendant: gold, rubber and elephant hair (1984).

thread to which a little bundle of elephant hair is attached.

1983 was a particularly productive year for Siegfried de Buck. It brought international contacts, masses of ideas - many gleaned from literature - and a succession of experiments. A piece of jewellery became a piece of sculpture and even a giant piece of architecture. During the course of 1984 he was contacted by the St Lucas Pavilion in Antwerp and asked to become a guest lecturer. This led to a teaching post proper, which he holds to this day, albeit on a part-time basis so as to retain his freedom. The experiments continued. De Buck introduced steel, wood and gold into his works in that order, and around 1992 he started making all-gold jewellery. The circle was complete.

In 1990 silver again started to play a role in his workshop. The reason for this was the challenge of entering a silver coffee service in the ‘TReASHure is LAND’ project organised by the esim for Interior '90. 1993 brought a breakthrough for his silver in particular and for contemporary silver in Flanders in gen-

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eral. He went on to create several magnificent objects including his famous Praline Theatre and later walking sticks.

And then a change came about in De Buck's way of working. It was a gradual change, for De Buck is not the sort of man to make a sudden about-turn. In his retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Ostend in 1995, he showed a small collection of jewellery based on the concept ‘the spine (spina)’. It was new and unusual. ‘Before that’, he says, ‘everything had grown like an automatic evolution of form. Nothing was directly linked to a fixed and clearly-de-fined idea, philosophy or theme. As a designer I facilitated change like a catalyst, amalgamating all the outside influences into a new form.’ The concept at the Museum of Modern Art juxtaposed the jewel with the body, rather than on the body. It was captured by photographer Michèle Franken, who produced striking compositions of the body with the jewellery.

De Buck eventually abandoned attempts to create perfect beauty. Symmetry, for example, disappeared from his work. The result is pure gold jewellery with two sides, each of which creates an image of its own. All those years of creation and research have given him the courage to dispense with ‘elegance’. The beholder and the wearer of the jewellery are now allowed to make their contribution and their eyes help build the appearance of the piece. Jewellery is becoming much more tactile and recognisable. It is losing its cool unapproachability.

johan valcke

Translated by Alison Mouthaan-Gwillim.

Siegfried de Buck, Ring (1996) (Photo by Michèle Francken).