Origins
Alexandra was 13 years old when the Berlin wall fell, the structure that had surrounded West Berlin on all sides and sealed it off from the socialist East, preventing DDR citizens from escaping their regime. Pictures of humans from East and West taking hammer and chisel to this wall went around the world, and today’s remnants proudly bear the marks of peaceful liberation.
The marks of history
These historical events created unparalleled access to abandoned spaces where humans could revel in music, art and the freedom to discover their identities. Obsessed by the buildings’ previous identities, Alexandra was among the many who explored disused warehouses, underground and power stations, vaults, shops and houses, debated and danced the nights away amid ex DDR interior and industrial machinery.
Preserving memory
Berlin has undergone much change since, but some museums and galleries have sought to honour the past alongside recent renovations to preserve collective and individual memory.
Alexandra pursues a similar aim with each of her precious raw jewels: the marks of creation connect you to the work’s recent history, while also drawing attention to the aeons inherent in the precious materials. Both gold and diamonds are millions of years old and will exist long beyond us.
Jewels as small monuments
As a memento of recent history and to support individual and collective memory, each jewel is dedicated to a particular site of cultural, historical or autobiographical significance of 1990s Berlin by way of 3 word coordinates. The coordinates themselves often bear poetic associations to a memory or the place itself, many of which do not exist anymore today.
Encompassing such a long timeline, the jewels equally stand as a quiet tribute to the hands and places that gave birth to their materials. We wear them in gratitude and in the knowledge that we will add our own inadvertent marks over time, as will those who inherit them. Gold is imminently repurposable, reshapable and will remain a precious treasure for generations to come.