Gill Perry was asked by the BBC to comment on all the recent media images of Bowie vigils. You can read her blog post What connects David Bowie with King Arthur? on the BBC Culture website.
Blue moon diamond and naming jewels
You might have heard in the news that a Hong Kong businessman purchased a rare diamond for $48 million dollars from Sotheby’s yesterday. You might have also picked up on the fact that he renamed the gem after his daughter ‘Blue Moon of Josephine.’ The naming of jewels is certainly not a modern phenomenon. Indeed it was a popular thing to do in the Renaissance when jewels were given names from David to ‘Il Spigo’ (Lavender) to ‘Semperviva.’ These names could reflect the qualities of the stones (in the case of lavender) but could also point to the magical properties that these particular gems were believed to possess (from promoting a male heir to detecting poison). Jewels and gems, of course were clear social and economic signifiers, just as they are today, and frequently in the Renaissance, they were used as liquid capital. For more on the function of jewels in the Renaissance, you might like to listen to the talk related to this over on the Open Arts Archive, delivered at Cambridge in 2014.
What fascinates me is the continued tradition of naming jewels, which individualises them and allows them to be traced in history from the Kohinoor to the Hope Diamond. Their value is certainly attached to the rarity of the gem, but the naming of jewels and the tales that are told about them surely contribute to their economic as well as symbolic value. As the Blue Moon of Josephine was only found in South Africa last year, it will be interesting to see what histories are written and what tales are told about this diamond.
2015 Turner Prize shortlist announced
As this year’s shortlist was announced, Gill Perry was interviewed by a variety of local radio stations. It’s been described as a list that displays ‘art with a conscience’ with work that has a political or social message.
Listen to Gill discussing the list with Phil White on Radio Humberside. (The interview starts from 17 mins and runs till 26 mins).
See The Guardian for more information about this year’s nominees.
ON AIR: behind the scenes
Caroline Devine, who produced ON AIR as part of the Public Arts celebration for the anniversary of the OU, has recently written about the process of creating her sound installation. In a post for the OU’s Engaging Research blog she talks about the ideas behind her work and how she collaborated with OU academic staff.
You can listen to a live recording of ON AIR on the Open Arts Archive.
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