A Collision of Artistry: Vimeria x Dina
A collision of artistry like no other occurred when two artists came together to challenge each other in their respective mediums, creating sculptural jewelry through the Vimeria x Dina collection. From the precise and detail-oriented practice of jewelry making came a broadening evolution of craft that birthed distinctly freer ornaments. Vimeria’s jewelry designer Anna Laskin and multidisciplinary artist, Dina Roudman, realize a kaleidoscope of feminine, natural, and timeless inspirations, their pieces subverting the meaning of jewelry as we know it.
Coming from coincidentally similar backgrounds, having been born in Eastern Europe, growing up in the Middle East, and finally settling in Toronto, Canada, to continue their respective practices, Anna Laskin and Dina Roudman had the vision to create something rare in jewelry: wearable abstract art. Their unique creative process consisted of reimagining Dina’s abstract and fluid painted work from the canvas into wearable adornments in brass and sterling silver. Taking the leap from meticulous jewelry design work into large-scale expressive visual art, limits were pushed beyond the traditional understanding of what constitutes jewelry.
Asymmetrical waves and unconventional forms infuse the pieces with a flow of movement as though an extension of the body. The Coplex Earrings see two parts: a stud and a removable extension that attaches by way of hooks, a testament to the transformative nature of the human experience. Typically working on a smaller scale, Dina pushes Anna’s boundaries in jewelry creation to wider dimensions, leaping from the static medium to a 3D entity. Perhaps most evident in the Norma Earrings, the expression of the feminine is a profoundly personal experience often explored in Dina’s artwork, lifted to relatability through geometric abstraction that empowers the wearer to see themselves. The playful nature of creativity is uncovered through the Espex Necklace, which grants the wearer the gift of agency in one’s own self-representation, allowing it to be worn in two components or one.
These are the fruits of two powerfully creative women delving into the relationships that intertwine art, jewelry, and individual expressiveness. The creatives closely followed and admired each other’s work on social media before breathing genuine possibility into the idea by coming together for initial brainstorming. Their process reflected a broadening of the scope of understanding of jewelry from an artist’s perspective. Being a self-taught artist, Dina began her career as a model and photographer, harnessing power through her work rooted in intuitive individualism. Her fluid approach to brushwork on large-scale canvas allows for an organic release of emotion, characteristic of her unapologetic boldness. Sketching her free-flowing line work onto paper allowed the two to visualize which forms could turn into wearable pieces. Sketches on paper were rotated into various perspectives until they could be seen as an earring, ring, or necklace. Two differing mental interpretations of the forms made for a unique and free abstraction that juxtaposed the usual meticulous process of jewelry creation. Relying on her expertise in the field of jewelry design, Anna transformed the simple sketches into printed 3D models that laid the groundwork for the finished pieces.
Vimeria x Dina directly opposes the rigidity with which both jewelry and visual art are at times approached, each dedicated to its corresponding circumstance. Instead, the colliding forces of abstract art and sculptural jewelry birth a collection of cuffs, studs, rings, earrings, and a necklace, that force the wearer and onlooker to interpret the art of meaningful objects that envelops their beings. Following the lines that encompass each shape, brushstrokes transform into a vision of contours and edges that release the barriers between technical design and expressive abstraction.
