Carol’s Coming Home

Contemporary jeweller Carol Gwizdak is coming home for her latest exhibition – at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. She used to live in Middleton Hall, in what is now the Carmarthenshire attraction’s award-winning restaurant.

Having exhibited both nationally and locally she is making the return journey with her new show called Delicate Balance which refers to the ecological uncertainties in our world and the integral fragility in the work.

Carol said: “As a former resident, exhibiting in The National Botanical Garden of Wales is important to me. Having lived in the courtyard before it became a garden; I have happy memories of this place and have watched it grow from a romantic wilderness to what is now, the jewel in Wales’s crown.”

Crafts curator Ralph Turner, a member of the panel of judges who awarded Carol the Gold Medal Award for Craft and Design at the National Eisteddfod 2006, said

“Carol Gwizdak’s jewellery focuses on ecological issues that draw on the visual and conceptual language of the natural world and in so doing reinstates nature in its purist form as the most precious of all commodities.”

Carol is also course leader for the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design in West Wales School of the Arts.

Delicate Balance is in the Garden’s Courtyard Gallery from the March 26 to May 25. Further examples of her work can be seen on her website at www.carolgwizdak.com

Artist statement
Carol Gwizdak employs unorthodox materials and, taking traditional forms of jewellery, subverts these to draw attention to our idea of what is precious.

Valued gem stones are replaced with natural treasures, the expected velvet box is replaced by preserved moss.

Comparing her love of nature to society’s current obsession with consumerism, she says: “Walking is central to my practice. The natural treasures that I select are very specific. My fascination with diminutive detail and foraging are focused through close scrutiny of the objects I gather; form is paramount, that which is overlooked, odd or unexpected.

“I want my audience to be inspired, inviting them, through curiosity, to form an intimate relationship with the pieces and in so doing to review what we, as a society, value.”

Having exhibited nationally and locally, this current exhibition -Delicate Balance – refers to the ecological uncertainties in our world and the integral fragility in the work.

As well as jewellery, the exhibition includes prints and drawings. One series of drawings references historical neckpieces held by the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Carol says: “The pieces are constructed from seed burrs, the hooks of which act as a metaphor for society’s dependence on wealth and status.”

Crafts Curator Ralph Turner, a member of the panel of judges who awarded Carol the Gold Medal Award for Craft and Design at the National Eisteddfod 2006, said

“Carol Gwizdak’s jewellery focuses on ecological issues that draw on the visual and conceptual language of the natural world and in so doing reinstates nature in its purist form as the most precious of all commodities.

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