31.5_GEORGIA RING SHOWS CB 3.4 FIN 8/15/08 8:30 PM Page 38 Ashley Callahan GEORGIA’S RING SHOWS PRETTY COCKY STUFF Robert Ebendorf, 1977 Richard Prillaman, 1977 Bruce Metcalf, 1978 Randy Long, 1978 RING SHO W SUITC ASES of leather , steel, duct ta pe, stickers, 45.72 x 63.5 x 22.86 centimeters e ach. Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. Artists’ photographs courtesy of Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. Photographs by Wes Airgood, except where noted. Courtesy of the Georgia Museum of Art. 31.5_GEORGIA RING SHOWS CB 3.4 FIN 8/15/08 8:30 PM Page 39 hen jeweler Mary Hallam Pearse arrived at the University of Georgia in 2005, she found an odd collection of rings tucked away on glass shelves in a vintage wooden display Wcase along a back wall in the jewelry and metalwork studio, largely obscured by dust. Inside were hundreds of rings with faded tags listing quirky titles and names of artists—many of whom are now considered leaders in the field, such as Jamie Bennett, Harlan Butt, the late Ken Cory, Robert Ebendorf, Susan Kingsley, Rod McCormick, Bruce Metcalf, Jim Meyer, Barbara Walter, INVISIBLE RING, Ken Cory, of brass, glass beads, and Nancy Worden. Her surprise elicited colorful tales from her friends and 6.98 x 4.13 centimeters, 1978. Phi Beata Heata colleagues involved with their creation: University of Georgia jewelry and National Ring Collection. metalwork professor Rob Jackson, jeweler and gallery owner Jim Cotter, SUNY New Paltz metal/jewelry professor Jamie Bennett, and University of Georgia professor emeritus for jewelry and metalwork Gary Noffke. She learned that in the mid-1970s, Cotter and Noffke, with jewelers Lane Coulter and Elliott Pujol, decided over drinks at Summervail, a summer metalsmithing symposium at Colorado Mountain College held from 1975 to 1985, to organize a group jewelry exhibition and travel it to schools and galleries across the country. This would allow the artists involved to add a long list of exhibitions to their résumés. They thought it also would be a good idea to keep the objects as a collection so that the artists could add that to their résumés as well. Noffke, who arrived at the University of Georgia in 1971 (following Robert Ebendorf’s tenure there, from 1967-1971), took the lead and decided that the show should be limited to rings in order to encourage the artists to deal with content rather than just style and technique. Under his direction, the Jewelry and Metalwork area in the Department of Art (now the Lamar Dodd School of Art) organized the first of three annual National Ring Shows in 1977 and established the Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. Thirty PRETTY COCKY STUFF, Dianna LeBeau, of years later, this remarkable collection remains as a document of that exciting brass, peacock feathers, 17.78 x 11.43 x 0.635 episode in American craft history. centimeters, 1979. Photograph by Rob J ackson. Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. The format for the National Ring Shows was unconventional, and rather than submitting slides of their work with an entry fee, Noffke asked artists to mail actual rings as well as photographs of themselves, which became the property of the University of Georgia’s student jewelry and metals organization. Coulter, Pujol and Cotter served as jurors for all three National Ring Shows, and were joined in 1978 by Bill Helwig and in 1979 by Barry Merritt and Robert Ebendorf. The jurors and Noffke collaborated on the trophies. The first year they made three wall-mounted trophies, for the first, second and third place winners, in the form of halved metal chalices with rings on their stems attached to slices of Georgia pine. The second year they created four first-prize trophy awards that were plaque-mounted belt buckles, conceived by Cotter as “a combination of a rodeo and professional wrestling belt buckle for a ‘World Champion Ring Maker.’ ”1 For the third show the jurors presented desk sets of shellacked slabs of pine with a variety of sculptural elements loosely themed to match the show’s three categories: wedding rings, school rings and fancy rings. SNOW RING SIZE 9, Steuart Bremner, of snow, Following their exhibition at the University of Georgia, the rings in the documented via Polaroid photograph, 1977. first two shows traveled the United States, unaccompanied, by Greyhound bus Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. 39 ORNAMENT 31.5.2008 31.5_GEORGIA RING SHOWS CB 3.4 FIN 8/15/08 8:30 PM Page 40 in a pair of old suitcases that accumulated layers of stickers, tags and decorations as they went from venue to venue. Stops included Kansas State University, Southern Illinois University, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Colorado, Virginia Commonwealth University, State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz, the University of Wisconsin, Memphis Academy of Arts (now Memphis College of Art), and the Arts and Crafts Center in Pittsburgh. The least traditional venue for the show was the bus depot in Manhattan, Kansas, selected by Pujol because Manhattan did not have a gallery and spaces were not available at Kansas State YOU TOO CAN MAKE BEAUTIFUL JEWELRY KIT, University. The shows were met with enthusiasm and curiosity and were Linda Hesh, photo collage, 3.175 x 2.22 x 2.54 centimeters, 1977. Phi Beata Heata National often hosted by artists whose work was included. The exhibition tours Ring Collection. encountered a few setbacks, though—several rings were stolen and once the suitcases sat forgotten in a bus station in Kansas for several months— so the third show opened in Memphis and only traveled to the University of Georgia (by Winnebago). By the time of the National Ring Shows, studio craftsmen were drawing upon a variety of influences beyond modernism, including Pop art, Abstract Expressionism, and the Funk and Punk movements. Jewelers were moving away from a strict emphasis on function and technique, exploring concept and the use of unconventional materials. The framework for the National Ring Shows heightened the expression of these trends toward individuality and non-precious materials. Andy Nasisse, then an assistant professor in ceramics at the University of Georgia, explained that, by keeping the rings submitted, the project promoted “a much more adventuresome approach to the idea of the ring, not only as a decorative object but as a phenomenon, or an experience.”2 Rather than spending a lot of money on supplies, the artists used inexpensive materials, and instead of expending large amounts of time preparing their submissions, many made rings just before the deadlines. The photographs they sent range from formal portraits HOLSTEINS IN HEAVEN, Janice Kluge, of plastic, 6.98 x 10.16 x 5.08 centimeter s, 1979. Phi to goofy snapshots to found imagery (Ken Cory submitted a magazine Beata Heata National Ring Collection. clipping of baseball player Jim Palmer modeling Jockey underwear), and many venues displayed the photographs with the rings, sometimes in the ziploc bags in which they were packed. Some of the artists used aliases and many incorporated humor in their designs and titles: there were an assortment of ear rings, toe rings, nose rings, and teething rings incorporating various interpretations of those body parts; rings with cumbersomely long titles such as I’m into fibers, you know. How am I supposed to relate to this ring stuff? and Last year I went conceptual, so I decided to be traditional this year; and funny rings like Pretty Cocky Stuff of peacock feathers and brass, Genuine Dime’un of silver, brass, a dime, and a rhinestone, and M-Bezel-Ring of silver and currency. Audrey Strohl, writing for the Memphis Press-Scimitar in 1979, described the rings as “examples of dry wit and piercing puns” and suggested that the photographs of the artists “would make a worthy exhibit for the Saturday Night Live TV series.”3 The Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection comprises more than four hundred rings made between 1977 and 1979.4 The collection includes Jamie Bennett’s silver and enamel Tack and Shade Ring in which the enamel creates a permanent shadow beneath the tack, Steuart Bremner’s Polaroid BUG RING, Robert Levin, of glass, 5.08 x 6.98 x 4.44 centimeters, 1979. Photograph by Rob Jackson. photographs documenting his rings of snow and fire, Linda Hesh’s photo 40 ORNAMENT 31.5.2008 Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. collage resembling an antique ring, a painted wood construction by 31.5_GEORGIA RING SHOWS CB 3.4 FIN 8/15/08 8:30 PM Page 41 Jamie Bennett, 1977 TACK AND SHADE RING, Jamie Bennett, of sterling silver, enamel, 2.54 x 2.54 x 2.54 centimeters, 1977. Phi Beata Heata National Ring Collection. STUNG, Jamie Bennett, of silver, enamel, 3.81 x 3.175 x 3.175 centimeters, 2007. Collection of the artist. Marjorie Schick, Lynda Ross’s reconfigured high school ring, collection by organizing two new exhibitions. For the first, and a glass bug ring by Robert Levin. The materials used The Ring Show: Then & Now, they invited selected artists in the rings in the collection include the traditional precious involved in the original exhibitions to create new rings to be metals and gemstones but also unexpected materials such as shown with their work from the 1970s, and the resulting resins, chewing gum, film, animal parts, dried garbage, hair, group of rings was presented at the National Ornamental rice, and aluminum foil. The rings reflect, to varying degrees, Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the opening their makers’ technical skills, creativity, daring and general for the 3rd National Ring Show.