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Palm 1 Earrings
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2024
Artist: Makila Nsika-Nkaya
Dimensions:
Earrings: 30 × 100 mm (1 3/16 × 3 15/16 in.)
Medium: Palm nut kernels, recycled silver, and gold plate
Object number: J.2024.82.CC
DescriptionA pair of earrings made from reclaimed palm nut kernels and recycled precious metals.
Description by maker:
As an almost unseen yet omnipresent element of modern times, the palm nut underpins food culture across the globe. In the Republic of Congo, its kernel is a food waste. Palms is a jewellery collection that introduces, as a valuable creative medium the palm nut, celebrating its inherent versatility. The collection celebrates the dark woody beauty of the kernel, using recycled precious metals to elevate it to its true worth. Each piece blends artisanship with cutting-edge technology and weaves together symbols from the modern west with those of the ancient Kongo kingdoms.
For the Palm 1 earrings, the kernels are reclaimed from street restaurants, sliced and shaped by the local artisans collaborating with Makila. She burns them in the oven at low temperature and laser engraves them in order to blacken the kernels and increase the contrast between the wood like material and the precious metal. The pattern is inspired by ancient Congo textiles where the rhombus is often repeated and linked to a belief in life cycles and reincarnation. Makila is fascinated on how repetition, like a chorus in music, is a powerful thread in all art forms as well as in science and nature. Here, the engraved patterns bring the material to life and recalls the scales or the feathers of creature leaving in the dark shadow of the Congo Forest, the second largest after the Amazon. The metal ball point function like soften darts.
Description by maker:
As an almost unseen yet omnipresent element of modern times, the palm nut underpins food culture across the globe. In the Republic of Congo, its kernel is a food waste. Palms is a jewellery collection that introduces, as a valuable creative medium the palm nut, celebrating its inherent versatility. The collection celebrates the dark woody beauty of the kernel, using recycled precious metals to elevate it to its true worth. Each piece blends artisanship with cutting-edge technology and weaves together symbols from the modern west with those of the ancient Kongo kingdoms.
For the Palm 1 earrings, the kernels are reclaimed from street restaurants, sliced and shaped by the local artisans collaborating with Makila. She burns them in the oven at low temperature and laser engraves them in order to blacken the kernels and increase the contrast between the wood like material and the precious metal. The pattern is inspired by ancient Congo textiles where the rhombus is often repeated and linked to a belief in life cycles and reincarnation. Makila is fascinated on how repetition, like a chorus in music, is a powerful thread in all art forms as well as in science and nature. Here, the engraved patterns bring the material to life and recalls the scales or the feathers of creature leaving in the dark shadow of the Congo Forest, the second largest after the Amazon. The metal ball point function like soften darts.