Genne Laakso

Ellensburg, Washington

Biography:
Using a post-industrial aesthetic, I push the boundaries of jewelry by exploring ways to create rituals of wearing, marking, and recovery through the creation of objects that make physical demands upon the wearer. The audience is confronted by a contradiction: the visual elegance, and intricacy to each piece: beauty; and the threatening psychical attributes of the found objects: pain. The culminating pieces of the series knit together contemporary practices of ornament, piercing, the physical attributes of flesh suspension and relate to my experiences performing with the group Pend Suspension in Grande Rapids and Detroit, Michigan. The devices I have created leave a temporary or permanent mark that becomes a secondary form of decoration and as a vestige of the act. I was born in Kent, Ohio and received my B.F.A. at Kent State University. I live and create my art in Ellensburg, WA, recently received my MFA, and am currently the adjunct professor for the Jewelry and Metals program at Central Washington University.