Jonathon Zalakos

MFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

A Pot of Gold at the End of the Assembly Line: Jewelry, Facture, and Alienation

We see a brooch of silicone sausages and bolt-on sapphires in realization of a toddler’s crayon schematic—an engineered rose destined for exhibition on the refrigerator, perhaps.

Suspended between intuitive composition and the meticulous revision of traditional craft, these works embody many imaginations: child-like creation; stuck-up goldsmithing; ‘handy-man’ repairs; and formal products systems design. These divergent creativities are united in the final pieces, contributing to a romantic portrait of a self-satisfied manufacturer.

Visible traces of their making process conjure a spectral ‘maker’, implied by the fingerprints, toolmarks, assembly, and conspicuous decision making of an ‘other’. We relate to these signifiers as opportunities for our own bodily action, and so this specter speaks in our own voice. Unconsciously possessed of this specter, viewers are vicariously thrust into an imaginary context and made sensitive to the nature of this work—whether it affirms identity or alienates humanity.