Several million pieces of finished jewellery, several thousand projects to be realised, awards in prestigious competitions, including the Grand Prize of the Amberif Design Award 2017, and ambitious development plans - Marcin Tyminski, known primarily as a jewellery maker but with significant achievements in other fields as well, is celebrating his 20th work anniversary this year.
You surprised yourself with this anniversary exhibition in Legnica: instead of the expected retrospective, you showed works that are even more modern than the ones you are currently creating.
I wanted this exhibition to be different from all the others, which are meant to be a summary of a selected period of creativity. Searching for an original idea, I pulled out a cardboard box with my designs that I had been collecting since 1997. I had accumulated several thousand drawings, which at the time seemed interesting to me, and which I could not make to a satisfactory level. It was time to combine the designs I had been coming up with for 20 years with the techniques I had mastered in that time - so in that sense the exhibition is retrospective. I selected 250 pieces of paper out of 1,000 designs, from which, in a subsequent selection phase, I chose the most coherent and realised just under 100, using my proprietary polymer grinding technique. My main concern was to make the exhibition interesting - you know, Legnica obliges. The first reviews were positive for me - it seems that I managed to surprise the viewer in a positive way.
And yes! The title „For sale” is also intriguing....
With this title, I wanted to draw attention to the problem of undervaluing creative thought, i.e. what - apart from the materials used and the work put in - makes up a piece of jewellery. Customers often ask: „why so expensive when it's just a silver wire and a piece of amber?”. Tomek Stajszczak, an excellent goldsmith, tends to reply then: „this wire and this amber are free, you pay for the idea”. The sad reality is that for buyers it is „just” decoration, while for me all unique works have a huge value, much higher than the one expressed in price: emotional value. I am really attached to my works: in the evening, I take the ones I have created that day to my bedroom, put them on a special shelf and look at them again, check them, draw them... I wonder what else could be changed, improved... I just take care of them. I can draw each of them from memory even years later, I remember every action at the creative stage, I notice immediately when someone tinkers with them....
How many have been created in these 20 years?
The unique ones - a few thousand, and the production ones - a few million pieces. There was a time when jewellery sold very well and we sent it abroad in banana cartons (laughs). Then it got a bit worse, so there were shoeboxes. And now the jewellery market has shrunk so much that we send in bubble envelopes.
It's a bit of a sad summary of the past 20 years.
On the one hand, yes, but on the other - at least in my case - the current situation, although difficult, has a lot of pluses. Before, I was busy „making money”: keeping an eye on the staff, buying materials, coming up with more commercial designs, preparing mailings... Now I have more time to design and make jewellery that I really want and enjoy making. Even if it's financially weak at times, I really am happier and more fulfilled professionally. After all, the greatest works in the history of art were created under unfavourable circumstances (laughs). Therefore, I will say immodestly: „For sale” is, in my opinion, my best exhibition of all the ones I've done so far.
And which collections to date are the best in your opinion?
Can I say which are my favourites? I love „Fish” from 2000, and I think they are also inspired by it in this anniversary collection - recycled drawings on silver cut in polymer. The most important inspiration in this case was the aquarium hobby my father practised - the drawings from books I read on the subject as a child are still stuck in my head today. Another inspiration was architecture with its simple glass panes in which light is fantastically refracted - these can be seen in the recent collection of amber jewellery with stones polished so that all the focus is on the interior of the stone. I have always believed that jewellery has to have that „something” so that it is not boring - and that is what I try to make. I have the highest regard for makers who show items that are artistically coherent - they have developed their own distinctive style that will always make them recognisable, no matter what materials or technology they use. The collections can be even very different from each other, and you still know who the author is.
I wonder if you also have your own distinctive style... If one were to put „Fish”, „Spindles”, faceted amber and polymers side by side, there could be a problem attributing them all to one author.
Maybe it's because I have a kind of ADHD that doesn't allow me to focus on one thing (laughs). I'm constantly looking for new forms and materials, and I think that's how it's going to be for the rest of my life. I don't want to stand still and do the same thing all the time, possibly only adding or subtracting something... But I see coherence in it all. I'm sure that if I had properly added, for example, „Fish” to the Jubilee exhibition, it would have been easier to see. There are also „Spindles” in this exhibition - they're a bit different to the ones you know from the past, because there's more lightness and delicacy in them, thanks to the use of polymers. I have also combined amber and ceramics with polymers - materials that have always been present in my jewellery but now get a whole new look. Thanks to the polymers, it is actually more of a sculpture that functions as jewellery. I fell in love with polymer and will definitely continue in this direction. There are more drawings waiting to be realised - in view of the planned touring anniversary exhibition to be shown, among others, at the YES Gallery in Poznań and during JOYA: Barcelona Art Jewellery Fair - I will be modifying it slightly and including at least 10 new works in each successive presentation venue, so that each time it will be a slightly different exhibition.
JOYA - that sounds proud!
This is my pride. I am really very proud to have qualified for JOYA, an event that is more artistic than commercial, an important meeting place for the art world, where artists present their latest collections and representatives from the world's leading art galleries view them. JOYA is one of the most important stops on my way to my goal. And that goal is to gain a place among artists who make the kind of jewellery I want to make too. I am convinced that I could learn a lot from them, develop myself. Because I constantly expect more from myself. In Poland, these opportunities for development are very limited, but it is not impossible, as you can see from the examples of artists I hold in high regard: Ark Wolski, Sławek Fijałkowski or Sara Gackowska, who are already part of this world that I am also aiming at. This gives me a drive - even a nuclear one!
During the vernissage, Zbigniew Kraska, director of the Art Gallery in Legnica, called you a representative of the „middle generation” of goldsmiths. But as I observe your activities in various fields - you are involved in the castomisation of cars and motorbikes, you make tattoos, you have been a professional chef and cyclist, and you are even the editor of a trade newspaper - I would rather assign you to the „old generation”: artists active in many fields of art.
For me, the basic difference between generations of goldsmiths manifests itself in the attitude towards tools: „young” buys them and „old” makes them herself (laughs). In my atelier, about 70% of the tools are made by me, so they fit my needs perfectly. In the 1990s, I was doubly determined to make these tools - whether for the goldsmith's workshop or for the car repair shop - myself: firstly, because you couldn't buy them, and secondly, because when something is so new from the factory, I quickly get tired of it and immediately have to change something to make it more mine. My hobbies drive me - even though these fields seem quite far apart, they intermingle and are a fantastic inspiration. They also make me think about who I actually am: a visual artist?, a draughtsman?, an artist?... I recently came across our interview for „Watches & Jewellery” from 2001, the title of which was „I am not an artist”. I was intrigued as to why I thought so at the time. I read it and found that today I think the same: you are an artist when someone calls you that and when you have earned it. I am a maker: I create jewellery, but all the things I surround myself with are over the top. I recycle every single thing that is new to me. I even have to have a dog that is different from everyone else (laughs).
You are also president of STFZ - elected for another fourth term....
This has been one of the most important challenges in my life and, most importantly, has consistently given me great satisfaction. I took over from the previous president, Andrzej Bielak, who was already a well-formed but still quite malleable organisation. My aim is to further strengthen the Association's brand, so that it is associated first and foremost with high quality and good exhibitions in prestigious venues, but is also more art-oriented than craft-oriented. The strength of the STFZ lies in the diversity of makers, materials, techniques, approaches to jewellery... As president, I obviously have more problems and less time, but overall I derive a lot of satisfaction from our joint activities. STFZ drives me, and meetings with our members and other creators active in various fields of art result in numerous inspirations. Thanks to this, I have started to think about jewellery differently than before, and I know that I have found my own way - this new thinking has resulted in successes: this year alone, I won the Amberif Design Award Grand Prize, and I also qualified for the JOYA fair.
Your goals for the near future?
My ultimate goal since last year has been to make jewellery that is categorised as contemporary art at a high global level. And I want to be the best possible at it - I have an athlete's vein, whatever I do, I want to be perfect and above average. Because if I'm going to ride a bike, I even have to have a special bike (laughs). And actually, what I'd like most is to be wanted... I'd like someone to wait for my jewellery....