Women of Strength and Power
My artwork took on a new focus around 2010 when I learned of Dame Helen Mirren’s performance as Prospera in Julie Taymor’s film production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. While actresses such as Vanessa Redgrave had played Shakespeare’s book-loving character Prospero, Mifren and Taymor turned the character into Prospera the Duchess of Milan and the mother of Miranda rather than the father. The shifting to a female role while otherwise strictly adhering to Shakespeare’s text and to the character’s immense, scholarly power and parental protectiveness is what makes Mifren’s portrayal utterly revolutionary.
2.5 x 1.75 x 0.75 in
Photo by Jennifer Clifton
The Tempest being my favorite play of The Bard is no surprise, given that I’ve long been obsessed with books (and plays and movies) about books. My favorite novel is Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Throw in a murder mystery and a library maze full of Medieval manuscripts, and it’s one of my ultimate happy places. – The movie version is worth watching too. The original 007 plays a convincing bookworm. – Eco’s deeply explored theme of the censorship of art and knowledge in the name of rigid religion inspired me to create the tiny wearable library Echo Knowledge.
The Name of the Rose is about 2 monks, and though I could relate to the characters’ thirst for knowledge and their passionately loving books, I’ve never related to their ascetic culture. Mifren’s Prospera, however, is a profoundly groundbreaking, female sorceress role model and not merely a “wicked witch.” Needless to say, her character resonates with me, which is why I chose the name for the collection of my artwork that feels like it all might be worn by an alchemist or reside on her bookshelf. These are the artist books, the dramatic rings, and my series of ironic, quasi divination navigators, such as Relativity Navigator and The Uncertainty Principle.
When Kate Bonansinga and Jane Milosch chose to focus on the Prospera Collection for their essay in Radiant Echoes, I felt the collection was truly seen as never before.
Lansford adopts the persona of her magician subject by manipulating traditional jewelry materials through traditional jewelry techniques. Through this action, she empowers herself, her artwork, and those fortunate enough to wear her metaphysical jewelry that references Shakespearian theater and its time—when true alchemists sought more than the transmutation of metal; and philosophers’ gold was a metaphor for wisdom.
FROM ART & ALCHEMY: LANSFORD’S PROSPERA JEWELRY COLLECTION
BY KATE BONANSINGA AND JANE MILOSCH
22k gold wire, 24k gold leaf, sterling, fine silver, Koroit opal
1.875 x 1.875 x 0.625 in.24 in. chain
Photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham
One can imagine Prospera wearing Lansford’s Relativity Navigator, rotating pendant, 2015, relishing in its beauty and magic, and its constellation of forms that are endless due to the pendant’s rotating disks. This circular pendant is constructed from concave and converse dome forms that are joined and richly ornamented on the front and back. Some of Lansford’s inspiration for this work stems from her interest in Einstein’s General Relativity theory, black holes, quantum theory, and astrolabes, an astronomical instrument that dates to ancient times and served as a star chart, and as a physical model of the visible heavenly bodies.
FROM ART & ALCHEMY: LANSFORD’S PROSPERA JEWELRY COLLECTION
BY KATE BONANSINGA AND JANE MILOSCH
Photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham
This gender swap [of Prospera’s] is affirming because Shakespeare’s plays predominantly feature leading male roles, and because Lansford is a woman who has honed her skills through decades of study and work in an artisanal field that before the Modern era was predominantly a male profession. Lansford delivers her performance through jewelry fabricated from precious metals and gemstones rather than through the recitation of lines from Shakespeare. Her designs visually render the energy and rhythm of Shakespeare’s drama. Her lines of gold and silver wire—especially exquisite filigree with its twists-and-turns—are mesmerizing.
FROM ART & ALCHEMY: LANSFORD’S PROSPERA JEWELRY COLLECTION
BY KATE BONANSINGA AND JANE MILOSCH
18k and 22k gold, sterling, fine silver, Peruvian opal
1 x 0.875 x 0.812 in
Photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham
More about the powerful women who crafted the essay:
Kate Bonansinga is Director, School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at University of Cincinnati, where she is also a professor and teaches courses about curatorial practice. She was the founding director of Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Art at The University of Texas at El Paso where she curated dozens of exhibitions and established an undergraduate minor in museum studies. She served as co-curator of Equilibrium: Body as Site, 2008 Metalsmith Exhibition in Print as well asguest curator of Staged Stories: 2009 Renwick Craft Invitational (Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and Tania Candiani: Sounding Labor, Silent Bodies (Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, OH) (2020-21). She is the author of Curating at the Edge: Artists Respond to the U.S./Mexico Border (University of Texas Press). Her recent publications include The Performing Jewelry of Rachelle Thiewes: Color, Feminism and the Body(Metal Museum, 2023) and “Art Market as Community Builder: Empowering the Makers of Welcome Editions,” in Vanessa Agnew, editor, What We Brought with Us: Things of Exile and Migration (Bielefeld University Press, 2024).
Jane Milosch is Honorary Professor, School of Culture and Creative Arts, at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where she advises and lectures on provenance research and curatorial practice. She was previously the founding Director of the Provenance Research Initiative, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., advising on WWII-era provenance research, cultural heritage projects, and international museum training programs; Senior Program Officer for Art in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, leading pan-institutional art programs and new interdisciplinary initiatives; and Chief Curator, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she organized many exhibitions, including Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace of American Gothic. Milosch has held curatorial positions at three museums in the Midwest and was a managing editor for Prestel Art books in Munich. She lectures and publishes widely on provenance research, contemporary art and craft, and most recently as editor of Chunghi Choo and Her Students: Contemporary Art and New Forms in Metal (2022), and as a guest lecturer in the Silversmithing & Jewellery Programme, School of Design, Glasgow School of Art (2024).
Read the whole essay ART & ALCHEMY: LANSFORD’S PROSPERA JEWELRY COLLECTION
18k, 22k, and 24k gold sterling, fine silver, Koroit opal, plastic mirrors
2 x 2 x 0.375 in, 26 in. chain
Radiant Echoes: The Metal Mastery of Victoria Lansford showcases the artist’s journey through over three decades of ground-breaking applications of historical metalsmithing techniques. This retrospective publication comprehensively not only explores Lansford’s endless ability with complex metalsmithing techniques including filigree, Eastern repoussé, and granulation, but also speaks to how her skill and vision marry in the creation of objects that filters tradition through a contemporary lens. Simultaneously an artist, alchemist, and shaman, Lansford brings together the familiar with the unexpected through creative work that rethinks the millennia-old practice of turning raw materials into precious objects.
The book features over 150 images of art jewelry, art objects, and large-scale metalwork drawn from across Lansford’s career as well as a comprehensive glossary of her techniques used, offering a unique opportunity for readers to explore the evolution of Lansford’s creativity and craftsmanship. Radiant Echoes will make a fantastic addition to the library of anyone who loves jewelry, sculpture, metalsmithing, or simply contemplating beautiful objects.
Radiant Echoes includes new essays by curators, scholars, and artists including Kate Bonansinga, Cynthia Eid, Rauni Higson, Elyse Zorn Karlin, Victoria Lansford, and Jane Milosch, with consulting editor Emily Zilber.
Full color, casebound, 186+ pages
ISBN 978-0-9821833-6-6
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