REMAINS

REMAINS - about the Collection 

Leyla Taranto salvaged the decorative scrap wood that she used to create the Remains brooch and necklace collection from the floor of an Istanbul frame shop where framers had discarded scrap left over from the crafting of custom frames. After research and experimentation in the wood workshop, she gave the embellished fragments form and, as she was working with only a small supply of production leftovers, made many of the pieces one of a kind –unique, or part of limited editions.

The wood that would have served as a window onto an artwork and carried on a dialogue with both the art and the viewers of that art, now, as jewellery, carries on a dialogue with the wearer’s body. Taranto’s act of renewal has given the pieces new life and enabled the parts to recover a wholeness all their own.

In return, the scraps allowed Taranto to explore the nature of “value”, a theme that she has touched on previously in her work. Although Taranto often uses traditional materials and techniques, she also incorporates or relies entirely upon non-traditional techniques and materials like rubber, packing foam or, in the case of Remains, discarded wood. Through a series of creative choices, she elevates so-called “low” materials,  imbuing what was once considered disposable with conceptual, emotional or creative -instead of merely material- value.

Taranto’s work suggests that we construct our existence from myriad choices: What do we keep? What do we cast away? What do we make of what we have and what remains? Through design, what is left, can begin again