Ileana Makri - Parallel Exhibition

Pistols and Lovegrenades
by Ileana Makri

“Pistols and Lovegrenades”, the latest creation from jewellery designer, Ileana Makri, transcends artistic jewellery and verges on micro-sculpture.

It was in the spring of 2007 that Ileana designed her first collection of weapons (pistols, machine guns and grenades). It and Web (Spider's Web), Shit (Toilet Bowl) and Wrath (Thunder) form ‘Today’, the designer's wide-ranging take on contemporary reality—human insecurity, the ‘rubbish’ all around, our ecology in peril—in the form of pendants.

Pavé settings of mêlé—Ileana’s trade mark and a difficult technique even when applied to flat surfaces—miraculously cover the spherical lovegrenades to create artworks that radiate strength, beauty and...paradoxically!… tenderness.

The “Pistols and Lovegrenades” collection was specifically designed to be exhibited at Potnia Thiron, the Athenian contemporary art gallery, between November 12 and December 8, 2007, in tandem with “Politically Incorrect”, the show by the Italian artist, Antonio Riello. In fact, it was Riello’s theme that inspired Ileana Makri to present her own interpretation of political incorrectness in the form of jewellery created not to shock, but to demystify guns and to humorously confront—and beautify—the brutal reality of ‘Today’.

“Pistols and Lovegrenades”, another Makri collection of jewellery made for our everyday lives and designed to be worn from morning till night…
Jewellery For No Special Occasion, each piece produced in just three originals.