TOGETHER WE STAND

MATERIALS

gold, brass

EXHIBITED

Sep 2020 - Berlin Art Week
Sep 2020 - Romanian Jewelry Week (Bucharest)
May 2022 - Autor Bucharest (ALCHIMIA School Award)
Mar 2023 - Romanian National Literature Museum

WORDS

Mihaela Caravan

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ira Efremova, Mihaela Caravan

TOGETHER WE STAND interprets the stages and intricacies of a relationship.

Love is almost always easy in the beginning. This early immersion process is beautiful and optimistic. We are infatuated, carried away by emerging feelings and drawn to each other furiously, passionately. We are charmed.

As time goes by, and if we’re lucky, we’ll be moving on to the next stage. This is where, often, an initial crisis occurs. This moment can make one feel that they've been ''hit by a train''. The relationship is restructured, re-forged, and sometimes reformulated.

Emotions gain depth, and new pathways for being together are carved.

Relationships naturally evolve through cycles of calm, passion and crises. Over the years, they continue to spin full circle towards a balanced, peaceful, intimate stage which comes as a result of work invested by both partners in saving the relationship. We are never ready for what will happen in the long road of a marriage or committed relationship. Still, if we manage to survive through the crises and challenges, we can reach a point where we build our own normality and balance.

The result is a “we” way more beautiful and personal - yet imperfect (third stage) than the idealistic “we” described in the first stage.

To build this collection, I have used six classic gold engagement rings to portray in a very blunt, straightforward way these three stages.

In the second stage, the wedding rings were flattened after being laid on a railroad and run over by a moving train.

In the third stage, the flattened pieces were soldered back together and brought back to a comfortable, wearable shape, which still bears the marks obtained by impending changes.

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