To hear the name Annelies Planteydt is to think of necklaces. Necklaces made of links, wraught in gold or tantalium. While her first necklaces were Dutch and sober, with angular and undulating lines, they gradually became fuller and more theartical. Besides rhythm, their structure became increasingly important. Her necklaces grew in size, too.

The Diver, exhibited in 1996 at Ra and nominated for the Ra Award, was life size! The necklaces that Annelies Planteydt is currently presenting at Ra are also relatively large, although they can be worn double. The symmetrical structure is like a map that traces the body's own lines, thereby losing its rigidity. Using tinted pearls and pigments she has injected more colour into her latest work.

It is like the jewellery in a seventeenth-century old master: simultaneously lavish and restrained.

Paul Derrez

back