Luci Jockel | Lifting the Veil

Luci Jockel Lifting the Veil

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Luci Jockel | Lifting the Veil November 4th - December 3rd, 2023

Gallery Loupe is proud to present American artist Luci Jockel’s first solo exhibition, Lifting the Veil, a series of objects and jewelry that harbor a plea for sanity at a time when humans are systematically destroying our planet through blatant disregard for its fragile ecosystem. Jockel targets the existential threat to honeybees, mindful of how, by pollinating flora, they are essential to the cycle of life.

She states: “Lifting the Veil serves as a ceremony to honor the honeybee…a martyr for our ecosystem—a symbol of the influence we have upon non-human counterparts and how we rely on these beings to keep our environment livable.”

To construct these works, Jockel devised a new medium—an amalgam of jewelry and textile—which she terms “bee wing lace.” Made from actual honeybee wings, this innovative material references the patterns and structures used in fabric lace and quilts. The Gold Veil, as well as other works in the series, additionally pay homage to the labor performed by honeybees. As a metaphor for their activity, Jockel assembled a human “hive,” comprised of family members and friends, to craft The Gold Veil. Just as in an actual bee hive, it took a mutually-reliant community of workers to achieve the end result.

Most works in the series feature bee wings. For a ring, Jockel filled a hollow sphere, fabricated from oxidized silver wire, with a three-dimensional formation of contiguous bee wings that appear to float freely within the space. She used a variety of organic substances in other works. Two wing-shaped bones (rabbit scapulae) are mounted symmetrically on black velvet ribbon to create a necklace recalling historical memento mori. Bringing to mind Georgian eye jewelry is The Lover’s Eye, a brooch consisting of a horizontal, oval-shaped slice of variegated black agate from which a bee wing encased within an optic quartz bead hangs from an elongated chain. Channeling more traditional jewelry formats are two pendants on oxidized silver chains displaying 4

bee wings arranged in grid-like patterns within ovular frames, also of oxidized silver—one mounted on paper and the other sandwiched between transparent panels of glass crystal— and a rosary-like necklace of black onyx beads boasting five cast silver honeybees, along with bee wing lace mounted within a framed, glass crystal pendant, which dangles from below. Addressing the unusual techniques and multiple layers of meaning in her practice, Jockel says her “work lies on a spectrum between fragility/non-wearable to durable/wearable… living in a space between ephemeral and permanent, much like life and death.”

Luci Jockel received an MFA in Jewely and Metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design, in 2016, and BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Jewelry and Ceramics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in 2014. Since 2019, she has been Metalsmithing and Jewelry Lecturer/Area Coordinator at Towson University, Towson, MD. Although Lifting the Veil is her first solo exhibition, she has been featured in many group shows, including Artifactual Remakes, Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, MD (2021); Sisterhood: Bodies in Proximity, Emily Jockel and Luci Jockel, NYCJW, The Jewelry Library, New York, NY (2021); Insects, Galeria Alice Floriano, Porte Alegre-RS, Brazil (2018); Bees, Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany (2018); and Life, Death, and Rebirth, Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA (2018). Her work is included in the following public collections: RISD Museum, Providence, RI; ArtYard, Frenchtown, NJ; and Galerie Marzee, Nijmegan, the Netherlands.

Toni Greenbaum, New York

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Rosarium propolis, archival glue , size 8, 2023 7

Bone velvet, 6 x 2 ½”, 2023

Mellified glass, sterling silver, 1 x ½”, 2023

Trace, necklace, whitby jet, metacarpal doe bone, brass silk, 10 x 10 x 0.5”, 2019

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Lady glass, honey bee wings,1 x ⅝”, 18” length, 2023

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Mellified silver, 1 x ½”, 2023 17

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Mellified silver, 1 x ½”, 2023 19

Lover’s honey bee wing, silver, steel, 2 ½ x 5 ½”, 2023 21

Winged arabic adhesive, 2 x 3”, 2021 23

Artist: Tina Jockel Telling embroidered in silk and cotton threads in the colors of principled ladies’ mourning attire, 16.25x10.5”,

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Study for Gold Veil II, object, honey bee wings, archival glue, glass, maple, 8 ½ x 8 ¾ x 2”, 2018

Lunula, 8 x 8 x 0.025”, 2017

Study glass, maple, 5 ½ x 8 x2”, 2017

Gold

Object, honey bee wi 202

Veil

ings, archival glue 23

Sourcing of the Honey Bee Wings

The animal remains I use in my work are collected after the animal has died of natural causes. My works are memorials for the animals.

The bee wings of Bee Wing Lace Neckpiece came from the roof hives of RISD Museum, whose bees didn’t survive the winter. The rest of the wings I use come from hives that did not survive for many reasons- from harsh weather, to mites, pesticides, and even hungry bears. I've received wings from a beekeeper I met in Rhode Island, my father’s hives, or recently, from the hives on top of MAD Museum and Brooklyn Museum tended by beekeeper, Bruce Gifford.

This work began with the idea to memorialize and mourn honey bees due to their decline, making a veil from their wings. So, I reached out to local beekeepers asking if they had the misfortune of losing their bees. I got a response from a beekeeper, Paul Whewell, who had lost his hives due to the harsh winter. In exchange for the bee remains, I helped him to rebuild his hives for next season- most of which survived that year.

He also gave me honey, beeswax, propolis, and mentored me in beekeeper so I could one day become a beekeeper. My Dad and I then began beekeeping and he continues to do so today.

As we experience more extreme weather due to the climate crisis, the bees and all other animals and plants are impacted. My goal is to bring awareness to this issue and reconnect with these beings.

•Luci Jockel

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