Origins & Legacy of Art Jewellery in South Africa
Timed Online Auction, 6 - 22 October 2025
Legacy
About the SessionLegacy, showcases 16 contemporary practitioners whose work reflects the movement’s enduring spirit of experimentation. Like their predecessors, these art jewellers often work with non-precious materials, producing pieces that are expressive, sculptural and conceptually adventurous. Through these wearable artworks, the artists employ art jewellery as a critical medium to reflect upon, comment on, and challenge the world around them, exploring questions of identity, place, social standing, cultural practices, and political viewpoints.
About this Item
Notes
Abantu: Threads That Bind Us is a body of work exploring the intimate connections between memory, identity, and indigenous African knowledge systems through jewellery. Each piece is distinct, yet collectively they speak to the resilience and continuity of cultural practices passed down across generations. Drawing from personal and communal narratives, the works incorporate traditional techniques, materials, and symbolism reimagined in contemporary form. Together, they honour ancestral wisdom while affirming the evolving presence of African design. This series is a tactile meditation on belonging, relationality, and the enduring threads that bind us as abantu (the people).
- Dr Khanya Mthethwa
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