Felix Flurry owns two galleries—one in Solothurn, Switzerland, and the other in London, England. The AJF interview with him is in our collection of dealer interviews. This month in his London gallery, Flurry is showing the imaginative Portuguese artist Manuel Vilhena. This jeweler studied in many places and with a number of well-known teachers, and he has come up with a very personal and very intimate way of being a jeweler. See if you agree as we discuss his show Miss Amelia& 1001 Rings.
Susan Cummins: As I understand it, there are two parts to this show. Is that correct, and can you describe the two parts?
Manuel Vilhena: Yes. One part is Miss Amelia, a story about a girl in strange and curious lands. The story develops over a period of seven days and is basically a voyage. During this voyage, Amelia meets many people and has conversations with them. (Within these conversations lie my working philosophical principles.) This story gave rise to jewels that represent characters in the plot, and subsequently, the jewels themselves created deviations and new pathways for the story to unfold. As such, the jewels and story created each other.