“Fragile Beauty” video art by Jaga Hupało and Iwona Tamborska jewellery

On 21 Sept. 2024, Jaga Hupało performed at the Wawel Royal Castle (Krakow, Poland) as part of the “Fragile Beauty” project. This project involves also a series of film impressions, which first emission was on that day at Wawel castle.  My jewelry had a small role in it. I took the liberty of recording fragments of the film with my phone and edited 60 seconds of it, in which my silver children are best noticeable. I will not reveal more, except for the fact that I had the honour of decorating each character appearing in the film in a truly Baroque (delicious) way, and the armour, swords and other knightly attire belong to Marek Krzywoszyński,

 

“Fragile Beauty” is inspired by the collection of Meissen porcelain figurines by Jan Joachim Kaendler from the Rococo period, presented in the Porcelain Cabinet of the castle. Below is a description from the Wawel Royal Castle website (https://wawel.krakow.pl/wydarzenie/kruche-piekno):

“The film impression “Fragile Beauty” by Jaga Hupało and Idalia Sarzyńska was captured in the eye of Bartłomiej Wasilewski’s camera with music by Robert Niziński and Marek Ołdak to texts by Piotr Sarzyński read by Katarzyna Figura. The film blurs the line between reality and the world of art enclosed in the display cases of the Porcelain Cabinet and Rococo Splendour exhibitions. The work, inspired by Wawel exhibitions, starring renowned actors including Olgierd Łukaszewicz, Jolanta Litwin-Sarzyńska, Agnieszka Podsiadlik and Sebastian Łach, was created in the Wawel Royal Castle.”

 

This is a quick photo taken with a phone during the filming of the Jaga Hupało’s project Jaga Hupało Pracownia “Kruche Piękno”. The scene takes place at the Wawel castle, in the room with porcelain figurines. The Queen – Jolanta Litwin Sarzyńska – is dressed by Jaga Hupało. Both are wearing my jewelry 🙂

For this photo posed the wonderful Jolanta Litwin-Sarzyńska. It was made during a film recording at the Wawel castle for Jaga Hupało’s project entitled “Fragile Beauty”. Jolanta Litwin-Sarzyńska was the “queen in white” in this shot, and she poses holding my “Heart of Medusa” rock crystal necklace.

This necklace was made for an exhibition at the Yes Gallery, entitled “Women’s Voice”. Its idea was to present a female point of view on any topics they would like to discuss. The main subject of this jewelry-piece is a woman who is like Medusa – a mythical creature, a bit divine. It is an allegory to how at the beginning of many relationships women are initially treated like goddesses, surrounded by respect and joy for their presence in someone’s life. Her body is made of a natural rock crystal icicle, which I found during one of my geological expeditions in Lower Silesia. The whole piece is kept in ice-white colors, except for Medusa’s  heart, which is made of rainbow Ethiopian opal. Rock crystal and opal are not very different structurally, because they are a compound of silicon dioxide. The rainbow colors in opal come from water molecules, which are trapped between silica chains and refract the light penetrating inside, creating the impression of a rainbow. These colors are a symbol of the spark in every woman’s soul, which makes them unique and extraordinary. Medusa holds a piece of her heart in her hand, which she gives to someone. Women, no matter how divine their origin seems to be, give their hearts when they love. What happens to this spark and themselves often depends on the person who receives the heart: whether the spark dies and the heart becomes an ordinary rock crystal, or whether it survives and continues to be full of burning colors.

The pendant is composed with strings of natural rock crystals, which are arranged in the shape of ribs. The pendant in their center looks like a sternum, which together with the strings creates a crystal rib chest.

 

POV – when the legend of cinema and theatre wears your crown with a large beetle (rhinoceros beetle) tied with his shoelace 😀

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Olgierd Łukaszewicz plays the role of the king in this photo. The wonderful Jolanta Litwin-Sarzyńska plays the queen. We were all at Wawel Castle from 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., because we had the joy of taking part in the breathtaking project of Jaga Hupało entitled “Kruche Piękno/Fragile Beauty”. The project resulted in a film (which official presentation took place in September 2024 at the Wawel Castle),

 

Below, with Jaga’s permission, I present a few photos that we took together while playing with jewelry in the garden. The concept of butterflies, thistles and the whole story of the “Triptych” really appealed to her and she became the titular “Butterfly Trainer”.

 

 

 

Triptych

In this work I wanted to create a story with a scene set in an unreal, fairytale world where insects play a role. The jewelry shows a scene where all three elements (bracelet, ring and thimble) play an important role. The center of everything is a ring – like a magical, flying island on which there is a treasure – a glass bottle of honey. Honey is the most tempting food for many insects. That is why it plays the role of treasure here. All the creatures in this work race to get it. Some of the insects are ridden by tiny people who also try to get the honey, or protect it from others. This is a race. It will most likely be won by the rider on the largest beetle (bracelet). The rider of the small butterfly (thimble) does not want to take part in this race, but does not know that Fate controls her destiny in this story. Fate is represented by the face on the underside of the thimble. The silver jewelry is gilded, and the insects are decorated with moonstones (flying beetles) and amber (small beetle). The glass bottle was custom-made especially for this project and decorated with diamond drill ornaments to match the overall design. The bracelet and the lower part of the ring are decorated with garnets.

This work was a finalist for the Saul Bell Design Award (USA) in 2017. It has also been presented many times, for example at:

• 2023 – “Fairytales Written with Silver” exhibition, District Museum in Toruń 2021 
• “Beauty Trapped in Time” group exhibition, National Museum (Yunnan), China 2020 
• Amberif, Gdańsk 2018 – Bijorhca Paris, France 2018
• “Beauty Trapped in Time” group exhibition, National Museum of China (Guizhou), China 2017 
• Saul Bell Design Award finalist – USA 2016
• Bead Dreams 2016 competition finalist, USA 2015
• “Silver Accessories Contest 2015” post-competition exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Artspace, Japan

The jewelry piece also took part in a special photoshoot by Quality Pixels Photography in the UK (2017). The photoshoot was kept in a fairy-tale-fantasy atmosphere, built especially for this piece of jewellery. The triptych was also published in the first printed version of the compendium of the best contemporary jewellery designers: “DUODECI Paris”.