Moniek Schrijer: The Jewel Room

A Hologram of a Diamond is a new body of work by contemporary jewellery artist Moniek Schrijer, which challenges notions of authenticity and value. Using laboratory created replicas of the world’s most famous diamonds, and traditional reflection holography, Schrijer presents a range of holographic gems alongside sculptural necklaces and pendants. Frequently working in oversized proportions, much of her work employs the vivid charge and patina of painted colour and textural detail to create pieces that are at once playful and subversive.

Theatrically staged, The Jewel Room echoes the vault-like spaces in which valuable objects are often secured. Drawing on the dramatic aesthetics of museum jewel rooms and luxury retail spaces, this presentation highlights the conspicuous consumption of high-end jewellery. In The Jewel Room, Schrijer riffs on our expectations of value, drawing parallels between taste, modernity and the often illusionistic foundations of the diamond and jewellery industries. As the polished surfaces, multifaceted crystals and holograms reflect and refract light, their appearance shifts and morphs, evading simple categorisation.

Image Moniek Schrijer Rubble 2021, courtesy of artist 2021, The Cullinan Diamonds I - IX , sterling silver.