The Lure of Radium

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: This research is situated in the field of contemporary jewelery and object making. Espace Solidor is the only public space in France devoted purely to contemporary jewellery. It has hosted between 2 and 4 contemporary jewellery exhibitions every year since opening its doors in 1999, and is by far the most active institutional force promoting and showing local and international work in France. The gallery is named after singer, model, writer and actress, Suzy Solidor (1900-1983). Solidor modelled for over 200 portraits from Cocteau to Bacon. Forty of these paintings now hang in a room dedicated to her in Chateau de Grimaldi, next to Espace Solidor. http://www.dfg.passau.de/Bilder/Cagnes/solidor.jpg RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: This research was presented at Mirror, mirror: une exposition en hommage à Suzy Solidor in France and the USA. The work was created for this exhibition and responded specifically to the proposition from the curators. This international exhibition presented a variety of responses. Artists used jewellery and the suggestions of the body to depict the multiple images of Solidor. The significance is the depiction and response to the "most painted woman in the world". She posed for artists including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, Tamara de Lempicka, Marie Laurencin and Kees van Dongen. The importance of this exhibition was to explore aspects of portraiture, identity, feminism and narcissism through jewellery. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION:My research explores human experience and place. Since travelling to Antarctica in 2004 I have been working from my personal experience of Antarctica. Whilst researching for this exhibition I discovered a film Solidor worked on in 1938, "La Femme Du Bout Du Monde" (The Woman From the End of The World) by the director Jean Epstein. One of the earliest fictional films about Antarctica and Radium deposits the story was written by a woman and contributed to early perceptions of Antarctia.