Angelika Wolpert: Metalsmith, Jewelry Designer, Artist

On a rainy Friday, the 10th of November, I went to Kreuzberg towards the gallery of goldsmith and ethnologist Martina Dempf to listen to a lecture by Angelika Wolpert, as part of the exhibition “Made in Kreuzberg”, where a Photographer and five jewelry artists give an insight into their work.

Angelika Wolpert is a goldsmith, jewelry designer and artist. In her lecture she leads unpretentiously and approachable through her artistic work. She retrospectively looks back on her career and explains how she – although being a goldsmith – started to work with metal and ended up working with paper.
At the beginning of her career as a metalsmith Wolpert works with hollow bodies, which is the first indication that her work will move towards sculpture in the future. “I just did not want to do tin cans any more”, she describes her strong urge to work with a material that can be sculpted plastically. So she began to work with Pappmaschée, then she makes paper, which she painted first and then later mixed with color pigments. The result is a body of works that can be seen as gems as well as sculptures. Playfully she moves between larger sculptures and pieces of jewelry. She still likes the small format of the jewelry.

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Let me die like a mexican!

In Mexico – where I lived for a long time – there is a very special tradition of dealing with death, which fascinated me from the beginning on. The family of the deceased arranges once a year, on the days of the dead, the „Dias de los Muertos“, a kind of memorial altar at home on which all things that the beloved person has liked during lifetime are arranged: good food, music or a certain sport. A sugar skull with the name of the deceased is lovingly placed on it. These skulls are colorful and pretty to look at and by no means frightening or scary.

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