S T O R Y B Y

Gabriel Craig

The

Transgressions

of

Lauren

Kalman

Unless you have allergies or sensitive skin, it’s likely that rash-

es, blemishes and other dermatological conditions are not the

first thing (or even the tenth) that you associate with jewelry.

However, for Lauren Kalman, blemishes, body image and the

grotesque are fertile territory for exploring our obsession with

the body and how it is portrayed in vernacular images. Kalman

creates meaning using the body as her primary medium and locat-

ing it in relation to our image-saturated culture.

Working from her Providence, Rhode Island, studio, Kalman

employs what can be described as a thematic approach to jew-

elry materials and techniques; the objects she produces are used

as props in performance activities, which are documented in

photographs and videos. Her insistence on making objects for*

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