STILL STORY ONE BACKCASTING
The sacred architecture and patterns of the Silk Route are the inspiration for Alice Cicolini's jewellery. Many pieces continue to be handmade in India in the studio of one of the last Jaipuri meenakari trained in the enamel traditions of Persia, passed down through family generations over 200 years. A family whose work is owned by the Maharajas of Patiala and Jaipur, and exhibited the world over, their craftsmanship remains of the highest quality. At the same time, her renowned Memphis collection is created entirely in London, where she works with an award winning goldsmith and lacquer enamel craftsman in the creation of her pieces.
Alice Cicolini is a designer and creative commissioner, curator of several international touring exhibitions on design and a published author, including a book on contemporary British dandyism, The New English Dandy, for Thames & Hudson.
She is a Research Associate at Central St Martins, where she graduated in 2009 with a Masters in Jewellery Design. Formerly Director Arts & Culture for the British Council in India, she remains closely involved with Indian craft and design.
I interviewed Alice over a series of weeks in order to identify and distill her early life and creative journey into the first of a series of STILL STORIES. This is an excerpt of a longer interview that will feature in the first STILL STORY magazine due to launch in Spring 2022.
Explore the creations of Alice Cicolini at: alicecicolini.com
ALICE INTRODUCES BACKCASTING
So many brands talk about fashioning the future, an idealized concept of looking forward that is very human but is also bound by the present and the past, the way in which we see and filter things around us, reading the runes. For me, I am fascinated by the way in which our histories shape us; backcasting rather than forecasting if you like. Philosopher Walter Benjamin talked about human experience as a labyrinth,
where past, present and future fold on top of each other, one informing the other. This way of reading the world feels much more fertile to me than chasing a future that is actually just the present in shinier clothing.
MAGICAL NARRATIVES: I love storytelling - all of my career has been about this from theatre, through curating & writing to where I am today. I’m inspired by beauty and superlative craftsmanship, and I want to tell people the story of why these things are important for our culture and our soul. But for myself, it’s my poetry, my pleasure, an expression of my femininity and playfulness. I've read countless fairy tales as a child and an adult, dark and light, Western & Eastern, and that little bit of magic …. there's an element of that in my work too I hope.
SLOW LUXURY: My ‘style’ is really about collaboration and juxtaposition, about craftsmanship and heritage, and colour. I also take quite a curatorial approach to my work; there’s a lot of narrative behind the collections. So I hope people will buy into those stories, behind the design, behind the people who made them, behind the techniques and heritage of the craftsmanship – and add their own stories to the gems as they become part of their lives.
I think the crafts techniques might change, but the principals of my practice and the approach to creating the work will remain the same.
That approach is based on the concept of slow luxury, celebrating the beauty of ancient mastercraft and privileging artisanship alongside fine materials. In a world of fast luxury, the challenge is to express the value of alternative choices to a wide audience but I am extremely passionate about finding a way to do that. I also regularly remind myself that TS Eliot worked as an editor for Faber for his entire career and still managed to be one of the most important 20th century poets that Britain produced, that forward motion can take a lifetime and may only be clearly perceptible once you have arrived closer to the end of that journey.
CURATED HISTORIES
I think there’s a strong link between where I am now and the home life I had as a child; this is constantly reemerging in my design approach. I was born in London, and grew up in the same house all my childhood. I grew up surrounded by books, experimental gardening and love; there was a stillness and consideration that defines the pace at which I now like to work.
As a result, I believe in the power of objects to retain and emit memory… on a personal and social level. The pace, commitment, expertise, and contemplation that the handmade demands results in objects that radiate, which speak to us and communicate for us on so many levels.
FIRE: Colour means life, in both its presence and its absence; vivacity, passion, I can almost taste colour, it brings me fire and energy.
DESIGN IS… ?: Curating, juxtaposing, story telling, tasting, smelling, touching, painting, dreaming … the first time I started to feel I was finding my voice (because that is what this is for me), I experience that very much as a physical feeling, like the electricity of powerful energy coursing through me.
“Good things come to those who wait”