The Real Thing — DEN ÆGTE VARE

The first collection of the colourful and light works bby Kim Buck, that capture our hearts at the blink of an eye; only on second glance does the meaning behind the work that makes it so unique reveal itself.

Kim Buck has a predilection for classic jewellery motifs such as hearts, flowers, signets and crosses. It would seem his original training as a goldsmith has informed him for ever. Yet instead of simply repeating the same thing over an again and varying its form, he has begun to critically engage with the motifs: mostly with humour, always considered, sometimes downright caustically. With his surprising combinations and plays on words, he questions conventions of the jewellery industry as well as the (inflationary) use of national and religious symbols. Even Denmark’s national jewellery item, the Daisy brooch, has found its way into his work.

Part of the preoccupation with what jewellery is, can be or what we as wearers expect from it is the play with materiality: what looks like inflatable rubber, turns out to be high-carat gold, precious metals are cast in simple acrylic and sawn up, and ordinary quartz stones are worked and integrated as cork or wood would be.

For a Conceptual artist the most important thing above all is to be thought-provoking. The questions raised by Kim Buck through jewellery and objects examine value, ethics and social status — and thus migrate from the realm of jewellery. They shake up our usual thinking and, perhaps best thing of all, leave us amazed.