Artistic adornments

Artist Severa Rech Cassarino on juju, jewels and the romance of travel

   

When she’s not putting oil to canvas and creating the bold paintings that she is  best known for, artist Severa Rech Cassarino casts her eye on a much more intricate endeavour. Drawing on the same impulses of expression, meditation and losing herself in the moment that her canvasses require, Rech Cassarino is as adept at applying the principles of  colour and composition to paint  as she is to glass, stone, crystal and coral. 

Inspired by anything  from history and geography to mythology and the romance of travel, Rech Cassarino’s range of Juju art jewellery speaks to the dreamer’s soul. In her combinations of Ethiopian silver, coral and turquoise lie stories of Venice and her roots in northern Italy, while her latest pieces sporting materials such as seeds and wood tell the tales of eco-consciousness and planet Earth.

Beads are not just beads, they are small adventures in themselves, each one uniquely beautiful and full to the brim with its own stories. It goes without saying then that, as with her paintings, each piece of art jewellery has a title that alludes to the original inspiration behind the work. Whether from her Elemental Mother Earth, Katmandu or ancient Kings and Queens of Africa range, each and every piece of Rech Cassarino’s art jewellery is a unique hand crafted creation.

“I thought I would run out of inspiration by now, but I’ve done about 300 pieces so far, and I’ve never felt the need to make one exactly the same as another,” says Rech Cassarino.

There is a  firmly entrenched history of beads as mediums of trade, ornamentation and magic in Africa, but Rech Cassarino moves beyond that and puts jewellery in the realm of celebration.

“In the early days women started wearing amulets to ward off evil. Today I  feel that while early women wore jewellery to protect themselves, we have now arrived at the point where the necklace is meant to celebrate life.

“I think of the book  Eat, Pray, Love and I want to add ‘celebrate’, because I think it’s something women often don’t do,” she explains.

The name she gives her art jewellery – Juju – is a West African term for a magical object, and refers to something being  a kind of a talisman or good luck charm. Unlike her paintings, which she says are possibly more academic, her art jewellery is “unashamedly decorative” and an ornamental statements of celebration and beauty.

Rech Cassarino’s jewellery is available from various stockists (such as the Wits Origins Centre,  Classic Revivals in Parktown and The Clan at The Glen shopping centre), but at the end of this month she will be exhibiting her jewellery (along with a selection of her oil paintings) for the very first time.

The Juju jewellery and art exhibition by Severa Rech Cassarino takes place at La Società Dante Alighieri (www.ladantejhb.co.za/ 011-483-2339), 62a Houghton Drive, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, for the weekend of  Friday August 26  to Sunday 28.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Wednesday 10 August 2011. All photos courtesy Marius Henning Photography.