PEARL: GEMSTONE OF THE SEA

Pearls are the oldest known gems, and for many centuries they were considered to be the most valuable. Before the creation of cultured pearls in the early 1900s, natural or wild pearls were so rare and expensive that they were reserved almost exclusively for the very wealthy. No one can be sure which culture was the first to adorn itself with the gemstone, however George Frederick Kunz, in his 1908 The Book of the Pearl, proposes that an ancient fish-eating tribe of India first discovered saltwater pearls, coming across them while opening oysters for food.

Unlike other gems, a pearl is organic matter- a stone produced within the soft tissue of a living shell mollusk. It was said in some cultures that the pearl was born when a drop of rain fell from the heavens and became the heart of the oyster, hence awarding the pearl its nickname “teardrop of the moon.”

The powder in pearls is believed to stimulate digestion, and to treat the disorders for the soft organs of the body, as well as mental ailment. It is a gemstone that has come to embody and symbolize purity, honesty, wisdom, integrity, and innocence, as pearls are often used in the intricate detailing of bridal gowns, and worn as jewelry for young debutantes being “introduced into society.” Until the beginning of the 20^th century, it was a Hindu custom to take a completely new, unaltered pearl and pierce it during the wedding ceremony. Coco Chanel’s most quoted statement—“a girl should be two things: classy and fabulous”—is perhaps perfectly embodied in the pearl, the gem of June. When Cleopatra wanted to convince Rome that Egypt was a formidable force, she bet Marc Antony that she could give the most expensive dinner in history, as she sat at an empty plate with a goblet of wine, or vinegar. She crushed a large pearl pair of earrings, dissolved it in the liquid, and drank it. Marc Antony declined his pearl dinner, and admitted defeat.

Pearls have long been a simple favorite- a single glimmering stone hanging delicately around one’s neck. Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer created Girl with a Pearl Earring, said to be “the Dutch Mona Lisa.” The girl sits before a dark background, her face partially shadowed, a pearl accent near her ear. With this image, Vermeer transforms our conception of a seemingly common girl – giving her an item of great value, and with it, challenging perceptions of who has possession of such goods. The pearl allows the audience to question the relationship between the sitting figure and the artist.

Simryn Gill reinterprets and alters existing objects and specific locations, her body of work a contemplation of how ideas and meanings are communicated between people, objects, and sites. Two of her 1999 works, both named ‘Untitled,’ are gouache on National Geographic magazine pages. With paint, she etches an opal-esque blue hue on the faces of two men in a field on one, and on another she fashions green pearl-shaped dots on the faces of a family sitting outside a white house with a picket fence. We are drawn to the gemstone-like faces, as we are to the pearl in Vermeer’s painting. We study the arrangements of the bodies in the paintings; we feel the communication between subject and artist. We look for the honesty within the picture- as pearls bring truth and light to situations.

Today, we can wear pearls to project a whole host of truths – an old-school sign of tempered wealth in classic single pearl earrings, as a touch of irony by way of Lilien Czech’s hyper-embellished pearl tiaras (made for Meadham Kirchoff’s decadent Spring/Summer 2013 rococo collection) on an otherwise somber look, or in especially irreverent form, as strung together by Tom Binns or Delfina Delettrez channeling Louise Bourgeois. The pearl’s layered history only adds unspoken meaning to a lustrous image.

~Susan Brickell

June 2013