Jan Yager

During graduate school Yager was introduced to industrial machinery and began to combine machine and hand techniques to create "objects to hold".[21] The surface texture of each piece was pressed into the metal initially with a drop hammer, and later a high-tonnage hobbing or coining press. Then the textured metal was puffed out into pillow shapes using a small hydraulic press. Each half-piece was sawed, soldered together, and finished by hand. Pieces in this "Whomp and Puff" series were praised for both their inviting forms and their patterned and textured surfaces.[21] They were described as evoking the feeling of clay or fabric,[22] and having a "contemplative spirit".[21] Next, Yager began to combine forms as freely moving elements on distinctive thick segmented chains. These pieces were seen as interesting and playful, inviting "the wearer to participate in the piece by deciding the positions of the various components".[21][17]

Rock Necklace, 1984, by Jan Yager

Yager gained national acclaim in the 1980s by combining her uniquely textured pillow-forms of 18k gold and sterling silver with water-polished natural stones,[23][2] a juxtaposition that shocked some viewers.[24] Many of the rocks and pebbles were collected while she was a student at RISD.[2] Initially she used the rocks that she found as inspirations for the forms she was creating for her jewelry. In 1983, recognizing the "incomparable beauty found in nature", she began to include the rocks themselves in her "Rock Necklace" series.[1] An example of this work is Rock Necklace with Ridge (1987), made of sterling silver and a gray beach rock, now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian.[5] Yager's jewelry of this period was exhibited and sold in both the New York trade shows and the American Craft Council wholesale/retail shows. It was published widely and commercially successful,[25] and popularized tools and techniques by influencing other artists.[2][26][27]

Crack Vial Neck Strand, 1990, by Jan Yager with Prehistoric Bone Neck Strand

In 1990 Yager gave herself a sabbatical.[28] She took time off to study and rethink her approach, asking herself the question, "What makes art authentic?" She spent the next two years studying the history, philosophy, and practices of jewelry making, thinking about the ways in which an artwork is connected to the history of art, as well as the time and place in which it is made.[29][23] Her goal became the creation of work that was "rooted in history, yet undeniably of its place and time."[11]

A prehistoric Native American bone necklace inspired her to examine her own environment for readily available materials.[23] After a wide search for inspiration, Yager narrowed her focus to the sidewalk outside her studio in North Philadelphia. Yager began to “beachcomb” the area in a search for inspiration in the things she saw every day. She found spent bullet casings, broken auto glass, and plastic crack vials and caps. Then she began to notice and closely study the plants that persisted in growing in cracks in the sidewalks.[11][23][30]

American Collar II, 1999, by Jan Yager

Eventually this ten year exploration grew into the body of work entitled "City Flora/City Flotsam." The materials used for her "City Flotsam" series seem light and ephemeral, though culturally loaded. Brightly colored crack vials and caps suggest the pieces of a child's necklace, but also the trade beads used by seventeenth-century traders and slavers. Yager combines these materials into intricately arranged patterns that pay tribute to Native Americans and enslaved Africans.[31][32][33][34][2][35] [11] Underlying each piece is "all the richness that went into its making", the workbench and tools that were used in the process of its formation, the cultural residue of crack vials and other objects that provided inspiration and materials for the work, and its historical and cultural context.[36]

Balancing "the historical continuity of factors such as scale and form on the one hand and the historical discontinuity between materials, techniques and style on the other", Yager creates "thoroughly modern" counterparts of traditional jewelry forms.[23] Through the combination of historical context and materials Yager articulates her feelings of loss and mourning, so it is not surprising that she was also influenced by mourning jewelry. At the same time, the intentional transformation of "degraded materials" into works of art is redemptive and hopeful.[23] Pieces such as Bullet Worry Strand (1995-1999) which incorporates spent bullet casings[37] and American Ruff (2000) which is made from discarded crack vials and caps,[3] are considered exemplars of found-material jewelry.[37] American Ruff is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection.[3]

"This work is not for the individual. It's totally about larger issues," she says. "I create authentic art that is of its time and of its place, of my place. I subscribe to the theory that whatever you're looking for, it's right there."[12]

In contrast, Yager's "City Flora" pieces recreate in metals the shapes of plants that persist in living even in a dilapidated urban environment. Yager recreates the leaves of plants such as purslane, chicory and dandelion in finely detailed silver and gold. In American Sidewalk Brooch (1999) Yager embodies purslane in blackened sterling silver. The piece has been described as evoking both "glimmers of beauty" and sadness.[38] Pieces such as Dandelion leaf with tire tread texture (1997) have been described as both poignant and serene.[11] The organic forms and enduring materials used in Yager's floral pieces can be seen as providing a necessary balance to the sadness of the "urban stigmata" that she constructs from fragile city flotsam. Together they suggest cycles of decay, death, and renewal.[23]

Some of her most elaborate pieces are tiaras. As Yager researched the plants she saw in her neighborhood, she was surprised to find that most of them were not native to the United States. This led her to create American Tiara: Invasive Species (2001), a tangle of urban weeds built from sterling silver and gold. The tiara consists of individual pieces of jewelry that can be worn together or separately. It was part of her solo show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2001.[11][13] The following year, it was included in the major "Tiaras" exhibition at the V&A, among 200 pieces ranging from the 18th century to the present, from punk rock to royalty.[11][13] It is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection.[39]

Tiara of Useful Knowledge, 2006, Jan Yager

Yager's Tiara of Useful Knowledge (2006) echoes the purpose of the American Philosophical Society, defined in its charter of 1743 as "Promoting Useful Knowledge".[12] The tiara consists of ten plants, an ant, and a pebble, each of them wearable as separate pieces, as well as together. The plants include ragweed, a potato leaf, clover, crab grass, lamb's quarters and a tobacco blossom. Each plant has its own story of historical and economic significance. The pieces celebrate new world biodiversity at the same time that they raise issues of monoculture, colonial trade and intercultural domination.[34]

Of her interest in history, Yager says "the farther you look back, the farther you can see forward".[2] By invoking historic, artistic and political networks of reference, Yager creates objects of both beauty and an unusual depth of meaning. Her pieces go beyond the "trouvaille", or found object. She herself has described them as "mnemonic devices", reminiscent of Pierre Nora's concept of a "lieu de mémoire" or site of memory.[2][40]