ATELIER
ISAROS investigates the relationship between matter and symbol: archetypal forms, deep time, visceral gesture.
An atelier of wearable objects.
An artistic practice at the intersection of material research, sculpture and contemporary jewellery.
Objects conceived for multiple scales: forms pared to the bone, from the monumental to the wearable. ISAROS makes the wearable scale.
One-of-a-kind pieces and limited series. The work is organised into families of forms, built up organically over the years. Each new piece belongs to an existing family: a living corpus that grows over time.
The work unfolds in two simultaneous motions:
One subterranean, from outside to within.
Research, forms repeated across time and space, conceptual expansion.
One revealing, where the forms emerge from raw matter.
The invisible made visible, tangible, wearable.
The choice of materials is part of the practice. It could be silver. It is not. Wood, bone, bog oak. Ancient matter — bearers of life, death, time. Corian and steel for contrast: a tension driven into the future.
ARTIST
I am Isabella Rosa, an artist and jewellery designer bending sculpture, woodworking and contemporary jewellery until they meet.
I am interested in the root and meaning of adornment as a cultural practice, one that has shaped human identity for over 100,000 years.
Anthropology is the lens I see the world through. Sculpture is the means. The wearable object is the ground I've chosen to walk.
I collect materials that already hold a precise voice: portions of matter that carry time, life, transformation. Part cabinet of curiosity, part ritual, I gather things, fragments and specimens that become extensions of the body, each carrying its own specific qualities, like strength, aliveness, depth.
I return to archetypal forms, those that define how we stand in the world as human beings. The relationship between interiority and the outer world: the shell, the casing, the armour. The call of the wild and the animal force. The allure of the unknown. The cycle of life, death, life. Passages and thresholds. These are the coordinates.
Subtraction is the method. I carve until only the necessary remains.
From 2013 to 2018 I worked as Cindy Leper, an independent, unconventional jewellery project.
ISAROS is the name this research has taken.