Interviews with two representatives each of ten areas of applied and desing art on their own careers and the current state of profession | The artists talked to Hedvig Dvorszky and László Attila Márton

- How did you find your way to the area in which you became a well-known and recognised artist?
- In which of your works do you think you succeeded in realising the objectives you had set?
- What is the current situation and the future of your profession like? What are its opportunities?

When I was at college I thoroughly mastered engraving, and I might have been the best at this decorating technique among my contemporaries. My chalices and goblets ornamented with semi-precious stones, among other things, feature the likenesses of aspiring heroes, kings, Transylvanian princes and other historical characters. One of these goblets enabled me – and some others – to participate in the International Decorative Arts World Fair in Toronto in 1974. After this, more and more foreign collectors contacted me – Germans, Italians, Americans, Dutch and Israelis – and I received various commissions from them. I also made small sculptures in bronze ornamented with polished cloisonne. I find pleasure in an object as long as I am working with it. Similarly to medieval masters, I make the hammer and other tools myself, like the punches and the tiny chasing tools. I regard my silver jewellery as a prominent area of my oeuvre; of these pendants became my favourite. As I see it, the figures in my 25x60-mm-pendants are not miniature sculptures but an equally important, integral part of the entire piece. The fashioning method I use – as far as I know – is not used by any other gold- and silversmith.

In my view, artisan gold- and silversmithery that I and some others represent is dying out. It is an extremely costly genre, which requires not only cultured commissioners but also ones with enough money. The fact that my creations are mainly purchased by foreign collectors reflects the Hungarian situation quite well. On the other hand, the way gold and silver objects are made has undergone a massive change, by which I mean that the hand-fashioning I do has been generally replaced by computer-aided methods. Then there is the issue of training: the traditional master and pupil relationship that formed the basis of teaching no longer exists, and the crafts in which gold- and silversmithery was practiced have also died out. The continuity of passing down knowledge is lacking. And the social demand – which used to not only understand the intellectual and spiritual content of art but also inspired it – has also changed.

Interview conducted by Hedvig Dvorszky

I designed a series of silver rings for the first exhibition. I took the shape of a classical ring with a stone, and reinterpreted it by opening up the design.
My primary inspiration was to create the experience of ‘seeing what is inside’. I basically left the stone out of the ring, revealing the wearer’s finger, the
skin. In another series I borrowed the idea of a technology called spark machining. I was fascinated with the precision of this process. I was looking
for materials that are resistant, durable, and can be worked innovatively; that is how I found titanium and stainless steel. I began to take an interest in
cutting, the rhythm and precision of cutting, the opportunities afforded by machining, and the thickness of the various materials I can use. First I made
rings and then bracelets. Then I started using lamellating, and by cutting the material into a virtually infinite strip I achieved a flexible consistency. It
was neither a chain, nor a rigid bracelet, but something between the two.
It was this flexibility, the process in which the material ‘disappears’, that inspired a later design: I started to experiment with working paper-thin
steel ‘films’, and made almost weightless, lace-like jewellery. I built the first pieces by laser welding, using the patterns and designs of classically polished
diamonds.
Am I a silversmith? An applied artist? A metalwork designer? An artist? A designer? A maker? A thinker? These days I find it hard to define what
I actually am and what I am doing. The craft I am in has many layers to it. Due to specialisation, things that used to belong together became separate
and continued on as independent genres. The boundaries that were easy to detect in the past have become blurred, dissolved, and competences have
become mingled. The world has expanded incredibly thanks to the Internet, and presence is instantaneous. Digital existence has introduced new
challenges. New raw materials and technologies are accessible, and unprecedented solutions can be found by rethinking traditions. It can no longer be
simply taken for granted that someone has the proper qualifications and competence in a given field. These must be supplemented by management and
communication skills.

Interview conducted by Attila Márton László