Geraldine Fenn

Cautionary Tales I

Art Jewellery in Conversation with Still Life
About the Session

Art Jewellery in Conversation with Still Life, showcases 15 local art jewellers who have taken one of art’s oldest genres off the wall and made it wearable in the form of brooches, necklaces, rings and other pieces.  This second collaboration between Strauss & Co and Stellenbosch University’s Creative Jewellery and Metal Design Division, brings together new works inspired by modern and contemporary still life, from Alexis Preller and Irma Stern to the humble banana.  On view at the Oude Leeskamer in Stellenbosch from 3 to 11 October during Woordfees, the show runs alongside the art exhibition Anything but Static: A Selection of Modern and Contemporary Still Life, presented in partnership with Strauss & Co. 

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  • Geraldine Fenn; Cautionary Tales I
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Geraldine Fenn

Cautionary Tales I
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ZAR 7 500 - 8 500
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Cape Town
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About this Item

Geraldine Fenn
South Africa
Cautionary Tales I
a brooch consisting of, a porcelain plate and porcelain doll's arm secured with red silk thread, the reverse with silver back impressed with clouds, sun and paper kite, steel brooch pin with silver mechanism, stamped with maker's mark, ZA, 925 and 26, total weight 40 grams
2026
plate diameter: 6cm; depth: 2,5cm

Notes

"These three pieces are inspired by a series of still-life watercolours by Emily Stainer exhibited at Goodman Gallery twenty years ago, which feature grisly objects like chicken feet on beautifully decorated fine china plates. The paintings reference the often cruel and terrifying worlds of old northern European folk tales meant to caution children about the dangers of naughty behaviour: in the contrast between the delicacy of the painted adornment of the plates and the horror of what is on them, Stainer creates a tension between the playful and the sinister, the delightful and macabre. It is this tension that I have also tried to enhance in my three-dimensional renderings of the same subject matter - the smooth porcelain doll's arm and leg and the always-open eyes evoke the fleeting innocence of childhood whilst also alluding to something broken or violently dismembered".

Statement by Geraldine Fenn, 2026

Influenced by: Cautionary Tales: Doll's Eyes by Emily Stainer, 2007; Cautionary Tales: Chicken Feet by Emily Stainer, 2008

Cautionary Tales: Doll's Eyes by Emily Stainer, 2007

Cautionary Tales: Chicken Feet by Emily Stainer, 2008

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