This piece was made for an exhibition to draw attention to the phenomenon of knife crime currently being experienced across Britain. Bottomley is one of 30 international jewellery and metals artists invited to create new bodies of work by refashioning, repurposing, adapting or otherwise transforming re purposed knives, including those surrendered to UK police.
The concept of the project stems from the curators’ concern about the effect of knife crime on UK communities and how this might be mitigated by art-in-action. After witnessing the “IMAGINE - Give Peace a Chance” anti-gun crime project in the USA, they realised that a similar but more locally-nuanced approach could be successful in the UK. IMAGINE was created by Providence-based metals artist Boris Bally.
This piece is created by traditional goldsmith techniques applied to precious and non-precious metals, inspired by the urban and rural landscapes that surrounds us. Characteristically Bottomley's jewellery features textured metal with vibrant layers of colour applied by the art of vitreous enamelling.
This work for ‘Swords into Ploughshares: Knives into Jewels’ takes a mundane household knife and transforms it into a flowering pendant. Inspired by the iconic 1967 photograph ‘Flower power’ by Bernie Boston, depicting a Vietnam War protestor placing a carnation into the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier during a protest march to end the War in Vietnam. The title of my piece ‘Metal-morphosis- Peace Piece’ alludes also to the Greek poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses featuring gods and men transformed into animals, plants and rocks.
The piece was made by encasing the knife with protective layers of vitreous enamel. Steel flowers, c 1960 from a Providence Rhode Island Fashion industry warehouse, were also fired and then riveted through the perforated blade. This refers the knife to the pioneering “IMAGINE - Give Peace a Chance” anti-gun project (Bally, 2016, USA) and to Providence RI where Bottomley lived and worked in the 1990s.
