Cardboard Democracy (Shari Pierce)

While surfing on the Internet, I came upon a site of a California activist who had a picture and some quotes that caught my attention. The picture was a dumpster full of cardboard and text written over the picture that said, “The contents of this dumpster and $20 worth of paint can reach one million people Tomorrow.” His latest posting was called “Arsenal of Democracy: Cardboard”. This local activist has put over 4,000 cardboard signs on the freeways of California and Western United States protesting the war in Iraq over the last four years. As I continue to Google, I find other sites and articles, pages and pages of titles that grab my attention, “Boulevard of Broken Cardboard”, “Cardboard protest: Greenpeace was using cut-outs to represent the whale quotas of Japan.” They continue, “He was repeatedly asked what he was doing. Was he protesting? He said nothing. Did a silent man and a piece of cardboard need a permit??? …”, “…Several demonstrators burned Chinese flags and defaced cardboard images of China,...”, “One student dragged a cardboard coffin containing shredded paper with the names of 2000 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq.” “The greatest risk is that Romania should keep on being a "cardboard democracy" having institutions apparently democratic but with no stability...”, “The Twin Towers of Democracy Cardboard Monument Project is involving the public in the creation of cardboard monuments to educate the public about the vital ...”. The articles go on and on.

One page that particularly stuck in my mind of the 895,000 search queries was a very simple instructional page from a US university that explained how to create signs for protesting. “….Lots of cardboard: Cardboard is a fairly common commodity….Discarded cardboard boxes may be found anywhere where people use or sell lots of stuff that comes in large cardboard boxes. Use your imagination (or buy some [boxes... or imagination])….”

Cardboard Democracy/ Borders (Text from Book New Directions in Jewellery II)
A piece of jewellery can be an expression of all kinds: a means for the wearer to declare themselves a member of a particular social class or group; to demonstrate wealth; to affirm an association with another person or a family; to proclaim difference or, indeed, sameness, by setting or following trends. Jewellery is rarely overtly associated with the political; it is more commonly perceived as a decoration or frivolity, a luxury, an addition to the necessity of clothing—something worn for its aesthetic value. We have long since disregarded the idea of jewellery as a fundamental means of displaying identity, but it is hard to find a culture that exists without any. And just as clothing is seen to be necessarily functional, in this society it is less and less so, and more of a luxury than ever. In a Western culture driven by consumption, the market and our wardrobes, drawers and dressing-tables are overflowing with possessions, far beyond our basic needs. And luxury goods are so readily available that we need never think beyond the transaction, over the counter or online, that adds one more superfluous thing to our hoard.

Yet any consumer item has a history of manufacture, from the sourcing of materials, through production, to distribution, which is shaped in part by socio-economic forces. Raw materials, whether hand-crafted and branded into a unique status symbol, or mass-manufactured into disposable high street goods, have a provenance which is at times questionable or exploitative; the market value of precious metals and stones is, in many parts of the world, rarely in proportion to the wages of those that mine and source them, and the damage to the environment is often, too, overlooked.

Shari Pierce’s work addresses the history of exploitation and the present political climate in both material, execution and concept. The title of her series Cardboard Democracies refers to those politically unstable states that lay claim to a democracy which, in practice, is rife with corrupt and coercive measures. It is perhaps, too, a pointed reference to democracy in general as a constructed ideology, a seemingly universal good which the West upholds as a panacea to the world’s problems, when in fact it might be argued that the buoyant economies upon which those very Western democracies are built are dependent upon the rich resources of far poorer states. This fragility is reflected in the materials she employs—cardboard, wire, paint—capable of holding a temporary shape but subject to wear and damage; offering a place of temporary refuge, but ultimately impermanent. In using cardboard, she is perhaps also making reference to homelessness and the privations of street living, testifying to those who are disenfranchised by consumer societies. The majority of the material she uses is found or given—old cans of housepaint, fake metal chains from old costume jewellery—so that she is reusing what is cast aside and refashioning it into something of value.

Starting with a cardboard box, sometimes “found while walking down the street… begging to be taken home”, she plays upon the different ways that an empty vessel, ultimately made to be disposed of when its purpose is served, can signify. As Pierce notes, we see these boxes discarded in heaps at the supermarket; but equally, they can be “temporary houses for our most important memories and possessions”, and, in the hands of a child, become a vehicle for imagination, with “limitless uses”—a fort, a castle, a car. In this way, then, this humble material is layered with meaning, in just the way that the material itself is constructed of layers of paper that can be “constructed and reconstructed multiple times”.

Creating cut-outs and shaped wire outlines of countries, states, and continents, she examines the notion of defined borders and imposed divisions—between peoples, lands, languages, and cultures. Taken as a pure outline, the recognisable shapes of these pieces, stripped of their geo-political origin, reveal the often arbitrary nature of those divisions, and question the authority behind mapping and the claiming of territory. Malleable and delicate in appearance, they reveal the instability of defined boundaries; and in reducing the proportions of these vast spaces to something that can be held and crushed in the hand, she questions their very substance. These small statements then, seemingly flimsy in form, take on the vast and intangible concepts of territory, history, and politics. No longer purely luxury items, this jewellery becomes a means of expressing ideas in a manner more commonly associated with fine art practice. And it is all the more effective in doing so by being worn upon the body, pinned or hung in the very places that we ordinarily wear our self-indulgence.

Education
2001 – 07 Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (Academy of Fine Arts Munich)
under Prof. Otto Künzli, Master of Fine Arts (Master Student)

1994-99 East Carolina University, North Carolina, USA
Bachelor of Fine Arts

Solo Exhibitions
2005 Fronteras:Borders:Grenzen, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, Washington D.C, USA
2007 Cardboard Democracy, “So Fresh” Award Presentation, Semper Depot, Vienna, Austria
2007 Cardboard Democracy, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, NL
2007 Cardboard Democracy, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, Washington D.C, USA
2009 She LL Project, Lothringerstr. 13, Contemporary Art Museum, Munich, Germany

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 "Gioielli di Carta", Triennale Design Museum of Milan, Italy
2009 “Nothing in Common”, KunstArkaden, Munich. DE
2009 “Jewellery Extreme”, Maurer Zilloli Contemporary Arts, Munich. DE
2008 “Wahnsinn Fette Beute”, Moderne Pinakothek, Munich. DE
2008 Schmuck 2008, Traveling Exhibition- Germany, UK, Poland
2008 BKV- Prize 2007 Für Junges Kunsthandwerk, Finalist, München, DE
2007 “So Fresh” Award Presentation, Semper Depot, Vienna, Austria
2007 Guerrila Store, Unit F Fashion Festival, Wien, Austria
2007 “Tatort V”/ Bloody Mary, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
2007 SOFA, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, NYC, USA
2007 “Coming Into View”, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon, USA
2006 “Lass´den Sonnenschein herein”, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, DE
2006 “Tatort / Mark your Territory”, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
2006 “Coming Into View”, Heidi Lowe- The Jewellery Studio, Delaware, USA
2006 SOFA, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, NYC, USA
2005 “Aufgebockt”, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, DE
2005 “Tatort/Tatwort”, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
2005 Schmuck 2005, IHK Handwerksmesse, München, DE
2005 “Krieg und Frieden“, Galerie Im Chor, Schwäbisch Gmund, DE
2005 “Reconstruction/ Deconstruction”, Gallery Sztuki, Legnica, PL
2005 SOFA, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, NYC, USA
2004 “Is there really cat in catfood?”, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, DE
2004 “Tatort / VIP”, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
2004 SOFA, Galerie Jewelers’ Werk, NYC, USA
2004 “Schmuck 2004”, IHK Handwerksmesse, München, DE
2004 “ZwischenSpiel”, Erfurter SchmuckSymposium, Erfurt, DE
2004 “Contact”, Galerie Mobiliia, Massachusetts, USA
2003 “Anello extra vergine”, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, DE
2003 “Tatort / Koffer “,Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
2002 “from oo to oo”, Galerie Oona Berlin, DE
2002 “Schmuck”, Städtische Galerie im Cordonhaus Cham, DE
2002 “Ladies First”, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, DE
2002 “12 ‘Ecoles Exposent Des Bijoux”, Genf, CH
2001 “New Metal/ Emmerging Views”, Galerie Contemporary Crafts, Oregon, USA
2000 “Cross References”, University of Oregon, USA

Lectures/ Presentations
2007 Shari Pierce: Cardboard Democracy, Washington, DC. USA

Selected Publications

Paper Gioielli Jewellery di Carta Catalog, September 2009
Nothing in Common Catalog, March 2009
Metalsmith Magazine, October 2008
Wahnsinn Fette Beute Book, May 2008
Schmuck 2007, Sonderschau der Internationalen Handwerksmesse, München
BKV- Prize 2007 Für Junges Kunsthandwerk, March 2007
Style Art/Fashion Magazine, December 2007
ZOO Contemporary Art/Fashion Magazine, December 2007
Sleek Art and Fashion Magazine, Fall 2007
Indie Fashion, Music and Culture Magazine, N0.16, Fall 2007
So Fresh Jewellery Award Catalog, 2007
New Directions in Jewellery II. Black Dog Publishing, 2007
“Coming Into View” Exhibition showcases work by contemporary jewelers”, University of Oregon Zeitung, November 2006
“Jewelry Exhibit at Schnitzer Museum”, The Register Guard Zeitung, Oregon, Dec. 2007
Tatort Mark Your Territory Marzee Magazin Nr 50, 2006
Schmuck 2005. Katalog, Sonderschau der Internationalen Handwerksmesse, München
Tatort Tatwort, Katalog, Publikation Galerie Marzee 2005
Reconstruction/ Deconstruction, Gallery Sztuki, Katalog 2005
Tatort Tatwort Marzee Magazin Nr 44, 2005
Schmuck 2004. Katalog, Sonderschau der Internationalen Handwerksmesse, München
ZwischenSpiel, Katalog, Erfurter SchmuckSymposiums, Erfurt 2004
S0-EN Japanese Fashion Magazine NR 6, June 2004
Tatort VIP Marzee Magazin Nr 38, 2004
Tatort Koffer ,Marzee Magazin Nr 32, 2003
The Freedom of Opportunity and Individuality of Jewelry
Design, GZ Art + Design International Jewelry Magazine, Autumn 2004
1000 Rings, Marthe Le Van, Lark Books/ Sterling Publishing, 2004
Tatort Koffer ,Marzee Magazin Nr 32, 2003
Enamellist’s Society International Exhibition Catalog, 1999Collections

Collections
Collection Susan Beech, USA
Collection Koudijs/Schrijver, Amsterdam, NL
Marzee Sammlung, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NL
UCE Private Art Collection, München, DE

Awards
2007 “So Fresh” European Jewellery Award by Pierre Lang
2004 Erfurter SchmuckSymposium Stipendium