"It is true, the spoken word enlightens both the spirit and the soul. Indeed, the HENDRICK’S Master Distiller can often be heard talking at length to her ‘two little sweeties’ – the delightful and peculiarly small copper pot stills from which the most unusual gin flows."

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE SKULL
IN ART AND DESIGN  
With Jane Angela Arte

Thursday the 16th June 2011
 Doors at 6 pm, Show commences at 7 pm

Memento Mori is an art form designed to remind us of life’s fleeting character.

The theme of death and images of skulls and bones have existed in art for many centuries. The middle ages is considered as the first prominent periods of “infatuation with skulls and emblems of death” when Memento Mori became a popular form in the arts. The first Memento Mori poem was recorded in 1070 by monks of the Hirsau Abbey renowned for its strong ascetic rules. It was written as a sermon warning of the danger of multitude of sins in the outside world and called to renounce the fleeting pleasures of life in order to concentrate on the life eternal.
 
In recent years many iconic designers have acknowledged the tradition, giving it new and distinctly post-modern tones. Now a new meaning has been attached to the previous Memento Mori, in fact it turns into its opposite: Memento Vita. A symbol traditionally conceived to remind us of the afterlife affirms life and art in all their manifestations.

Jane Angela Arte
J.A. Arte is a Design Editor of The Hub Magazine, writer and journalist as well as:
Director/Designer of Arte Jewellery www.artejewellery.co.uk <http://www.artejewellery.co.uk/>  , interior and product designer – JAG Contemporary Design.
She holds several post-graduate degrees in Art History and Design (Chelsea College of Art and Design, London) and she has been writing on art, design and culture for many years.
Her theoretical interests encompass: Oriental/Muslim architecture as jewellery and female issues associated with it, the role of art and photography in interior design, liminality and creative possibilities.
 
Initially Arte’s interest in the subject of a skull was unexpectedly triggered by the contemporary art exhibition only to manifest itself in a series of lectures later.
A new range of Arte jewellery line Memento Vita is to be launched in April 2011.

Talks at 11 Mare Street - please click here to buy tickets