SOLELYCHAOSISEEAHEAD

solelychaosiseeahead
choker
18-karat gold structure and letters
weight 40 g

Solely chaos I see ahead is the result of a collaboration between Eugenio Ampudia and the Grassy jewelry store, which, in addition to being one of the capital’s legendary jewelry stores, has had a workshop since its inception in 1929 where impeccable artisans have worked over the years at the service of internationally renowned designers and artists.

It was in Mesopotamia and Egypt where women first tied chokers around their necks, not so much for vanity as for protection and to exercise power. Throughout the Renaissance, they took on a more decorative function, and during the French Revolution, red ribbons around the neck were a tribute to those guillotined. In the 19th century, prostitutes replaced the red ribbon with a black one, none more so than Manet’s Olympia, giving it this new meaning. Degas took it up again for his ballerinas and as a piece of jewelry to hide a birthmark, Alexandra of Denmark, wife of Edward VII, Princess of Wales and Queen of England. Today, it remains a piece of jewelry with multiple connotations, from the most provocative to absolute elegance.

The phrase Ampudia chose for his work Solely chaos I see ahead was uttered by German historian Aby Warburg at the end of his life as he was trying to finish Atlas Mnemosyme, a compilation of more than two thousand images arranged in 60 plates grouped together based on their internal analogies. The contrast between this heartbreaking phrase and the material in which it is uttered reflects the indifferent postmodernity that Gilles Lipovetsky sums up in this sentence:
Has there ever been so much organization, so much construction, so much accumulation, and at the same time, has there ever been so much torment caused by the passion for nothingness, for a clean slate, for total extermination?