{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1272092"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1272092/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HD4991/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HD4991/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HD4991","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HD4992","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1272092/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1272092","accessionNumber":"M.2-2014","objectType":"Brooch","titles":[{"title":"Peeling off the bitter rind","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"The brooch ‘Peeling off the bitter rind’ shows a human figure with a wound of torn and hanging skin which has been slashed by the vegetable peeler he conceals behind his back. It is a powerful response to the AIDS crisis and in particular the anguish of survivor guilt. A finely tuned balance of beauty and raw pain, it touches on issues of mortality, shame, self-harming and self-doubt.\r\n\r\nKeith Lewis recalls that the title of the work came to him before the piece took form in his mind, from musing on the concept of something bitter masking something that is not. He notes the surface allusions to fruit: ‘citrus in the dimpled yellow rind …apples or pears in the penile stem …and the peach or apricot in the butt-crack along the head’. But the real concern is the peeling or stripping back to what lies within. He explains ‘Of course that interior is about so many types of uncleanliness, unworthiness, shame and anxiety. In the context of when the piece was made [1993] the first thought is (was?) about infection and disease, the uncleanness of the leper; but for me - very specifically and personally - it is also about the belief (never far from the surface) that I might be both unloved and unlovable. I always tried to make these pieces not just about disease, but about all manner of fears and doubts and secrets.’ \r\n\r\nThe American jeweller Keith Lewis took an initial degree in Chemistry followed some years later by a Masters in Jewellery and Metalsmithing. He has had an active teaching career alongside making and is currently the Central Washington University Distinguished Professor in Jewelry / Metals / Design. ","physicalDescription":"A stylised torso with skin slashed and dangling, holds behind his back a vegetable peeler. The silver-gilt skin is dotted to resemble citrus peel while beneath its surface the jagged wound reveals rough and dark metal innards. On the back a steel pin curves from the right shoulder to just above the left elbow.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Keith Lewis","id":"AUTH331719"},"association":{"text":"designed and made by","id":"x28674"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver gilt","id":"x37998"},{"text":"copper","id":"AAT11020"},{"text":"steel","id":"AAT133751"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2014HD4991","2014HD4992"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"91","id":"THES49703"},"free":"","case":"43","shelf":"D","box":"3"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"brooch","id":"AAT45995"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1993","earliest":"1993-01-01","latest":"1993-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given in honour of the artist by the Porter Price Collection","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"80","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"54","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"28","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Keith Lewis has supplied a statement he wrote about the brooch in 1993 for the exhibition ‘The Gold Show’ curated by Signe Mayfield at the Palo Alto Cultural Center:\r\n\r\n‘My work has two, sometimes overlapping, purposes; to commemorate grief and to chastise self-pity. Peeling-Off The Bitter Rind, spoofs my own self-absorption and sense of mission, while (I hope) offering itself as a coathook for other histories, phobias and fantasies.\r\n\r\nSome unjewelry-like questions come to mind; Is peeling duplicitous. Or is it revelatory? Is the gold rind essence or mask? Why is it bitter? Does the woody stem respond or anticipate? Does the fruity odalisque invite or repel? Is gold precious, vibrant and seductive? Or is it weighty, inert and cold?’\r\n\r\n\r\nIn 2014 he added the following thoughts about the piece:\r\n\r\n‘I remember that the title came right at the beginning- perhaps before any image of the piece at all. It indicates an act in progress and suggests that the rind- being bitter- covers something that is not bitter. However when one views the figure itself the revelation to the contrary is both comic and repellent- saving (I hope) the object from bathos but not playing it for laughs either. Of course that interior is about so many types of uncleanliness, unworthiness, shame and anxiety. In the context of when the piece was made the first thought is (was?) about infection and disease, the uncleanness of the leper; but for me- very specifically and personally- it is also about the belief (never far from the surface) that I might be both unloved and unlovable. I always tried to make these pieces not just about disease, but about all manner of fears and doubts and secrets.\r\n\r\nRevelation, after all, invites rejection more often than it garners an embrace.\r\n\r\nAs I ponder the piece now I’m struck by my decision to represent two types of fruit: citrus in the dimpled yellow rind (and it HAD to be rind and not skin. Skin is simply a membrane, but a rind is armour) and then apples or pears in the penile stem and the peach or apricot in the butt-crack along the head. Part of this was, I’m sure, a set of practical decisions relating to the stylization of the anatomy. It surprises me though, that in the statement above I never mention that the woody, penile stem (completely unrelated to citrus) is- for the fruit- actually a source of nourishment. I believe so strongly that sex is redemptive and that sex nourishes, but I’m not sure I ever considered the un-anatomic inward drawing of nourishment that the stem represents.\r\n\r\nThat mix of fruit types was also necessary to allow the use of the peeler- related to apples but having nothing to do with how one would peel citrus. I think that the aggressive implement was necessary though, not just for the visceral way that it evokes flaying, but also so that it could be hidden behind the back of the figure, as a kind of shame.\r\n\r\nThere is also- of course- the pridefullness of displaying one’s pain and maybe even a dim remembrance of the punishment of Marsyas for daring to play his very best....’\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Figurative brooch of gilded silver, copper and steel, by Keith Lewis, U.S.A. 1993","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.2-2014"],"accessionNumberNum":"2","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":2014,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2013-09-06","availableToBook":false}}