Gaelle Khouri – Soft Deconstruction: The Next Perspective

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Gaelle Khouri has developed an addendum to her acclaimed Soft Deconstruction collection. The Next Perspective sees the Lebanese-born designer continue to examine the inner world as in her preceding collections. Khouri’s fascination lies in the intangible realm of the mind and thoughts.

The story behind this latest collection ruminates on the notion that humans are prisoners of their own mind, incapable of attaining the true world. However, this in turn highlights the concept of individuality, which will, when well-grasped and expressed, grant us tolerance and a degree of freedom from the prison of mind.

The collection is suffused with philosophical narrative. Pieces are comprised of complex compositions of abstract ellipses, representative of the interpretations of the mind, which are in a constant state of motion. The thinking happens in three dimensions – ideas float in the inner empty space of the mind to take on volume, all of which is reflected in the manner in which the pieces are constructed.

Taking cues from the Originators, the 12 new sculptural pieces see circular rings layered and intertwined, much like the synapses of the mind, to form wearable pieces to adorn the ears, neck and fingers. With names taken from Ancient Greek and Latin philosophy, Gaelle seeks to imbue the wearer with a sense of individuality and purpose.

The Cage: The Next Perspective

Taking cues from key pieces in her debut collection, the new 12-piece range offers including chokers, anklets, earrings and upper arm bracelets to embellish key parts of the body. Diamond dots are set within yellow gold to represent the repetition of time; every fraction of a second that repeats endlessly, showing time as the only constant that we can never grasp or understand with our mortal body. Metal links connecting the diamonds represent the tissues of the mortal body – shortlived veins, arteries and nerves – highlighting the bodily limitations that trap individuals and further prevent them from perceiving the world in a full picture.

As with Gaelle’s previous collections, the designs are suffused with philosophical narrative. The body, at the source of individuals’ physical constraints, is ephemeral, allowing us to only be beholden to the particular time we live in. Human perception of time therefore always occurs in the present. In order to perceive future or past occurrences, to reach forwards or backwards in time, we can only by means of the imagination. We are never able to see the full picture to fully understand what brings us here. We can never break the bounds of time. In that respect, owing to our mortality, we are prisoners of time.

Just like anyone bound in captivity, we are constantly seeking a way out of the boundaries that enclose us. Many philosophers and scientists have actively attempted to manipulate time: Einstein was among the first to challenge the prison of time with his Theory of Relativity. However, despite vast attempts, we still live within the prison of time, and perhaps this inability to control time is at the core of human’s psychological frustration.

Prices for the Soft Deconstruction collection range from £450 to £7,280.

The talented designer joins a pack of educated and curious female jewellery designers emerging from the Middle East. Khouri designs for the like-minded international woman with an appreciation for beautifully crafted works of art, encompassing tangible meaning and emotion.  For more information, visit www.gaellekhouri.com.