"Male Jaw-Piece"
British jewelry designer Shaun Leane trained and worked as a goldsmith and fine jeweler before collaborating with designer Alexander McQueen in the early 1990s. For McQueen, Leane experimented with non-precious and unconventional materials in designs for atavistic and fetishistic objects. Leane created this jaw-piece, a cast aluminum section of a male jaw with broken and missing teeth, along with a female version and a cast aluminum “Spine” corset, to expose the anatomical structure of the body. The skeletal pieces draw on the tradition of memento mori jewelry, with cast bone serving as a reference to death and the transience of human experience.
Artwork Details
- Title: "Male Jaw-Piece"
- Design House: Alexander McQueen (British, founded 1992)
- Designer: Shaun Leane (British, born 1969)
- Designer: Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010) in collaboration with
- Date: spring/summer 1998
- Culture: British
- Medium: silver-plated aluminum
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.57
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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