What can a single object do to a person? Objects can change people. Not just how they look, but how they feel — in a room, in the world. I create my Neck Pieces to be that kind of object. They guard intimately. They alter posture, change the way one carries oneself, and charge the air around the wearer. My knot is a relationship with whoever holds it: bound together, working on one another, resisting simplification. Beyond adornment, this side of sculpture. The people wearing the neck pieces in the images are my people - mostly friends, family - photographed in my world, and it will keep evolving. What you see is work in motion. Knots I–VII grow in scale from small and dense - a knuckle, a barnacle - to an elephant's eye claim on the chest. There is one for everything you want to say.
Background
My art practice has long explored what materials can become when they are cut, layered, folded, and assembled. Leather entered my studio through an invitation from Sonia Rykiel, and my fascination deepened over years of experimentation between Paris and South Africa, eventually extending into the space of the body.
I am drawn to the moment a flat material leaves the table and becomes something that occupies space, intertwines with itself and others, casts shadows, and acts upon the world differently. Each Neck Piece begins as leather – alive, responsive, with its own grain and tension – and through cutting, braiding, knotting, and encounter with cast bronze, finds a form. Weight, tension, plasticity, and gravity are collaborators. The forms are not designed so much as arrived at, and on the body, something else begins…
Each piece is singular and unrepeated, with a new collection released each year. Custom commissions, collaborations, and one-of-a-kind pieces incorporating precious metals and gemstones are available by inquiry at maggie@maggiecardelus.com
CARDELÚS Design is a registered artisan atelier, recognized by the Chambre des Métiers et de l’Artisanat de Paris.
Carrying Case
