Showroom for Cushla Whiting Jewellery

Sometimes, it is the simplest truths that provide the strongest foundations for architecture. For instance: an object is only ever visible by virtue of its background. The Jewellery Studio for Cushla Whiting is composed of a series of backgrounds, crafted to make an especially small and delicate object - jewellery - visible. The rings, studs, necklaces, and bracelets made by the studio are mounted on peculiar fixtures: stones, suspended at waist height on metal columns and distributed loosely throughout the room. The rough hewn, soft grey stones contrast with the intricately wrought metal, finely cut gemstones, and deep colours and sheen of the jewellery pieces; a crude, heavy background on which these light, refined figures become visible.

Text by Thomas Essex-Plath.

However, from only a few paces away an object as small as a ring easily escapes the eye, regardless of its background. It is in this situation that these stones switch from being a background to becoming a figure that piques the curiosity and holds the eye of the visitor - drawing them closer until the subtle details of the jewellery itself captures their attention. They become a stand-in, at a distance, for the jewellery that they hold, even evoking some of its qualities: the glass cylinders sliding over and encircling the stones and the thin columns that puncture through them echo the physicality of rings on fingers and studs in pierced ears. The room itself is merely a quiet background for these objects. For a background to function effectively as such, it needs to be relativelyrecessive - as it is here. The finishes on the walls, ceiling, and fixtures are simply a unifying, neutral white and the glass elements in the room are frameless and unobtrusive. The one exceptional element amongst this background is the gold curtain that runs through the middle of the space, dividing the two halves of the room but also giving it a single suggestion of opulence suitable for the objects it contains.