Schmaltz: You Light Up My Life
Here in the Jewellery Quarter we are surrounded by love, our jewellery provides the love tokens that travel with us throughout our lives.
Sounds a bit "schmaltzy", but here at Quartermasters, we believe there cannot be enough of this in the world. Light often comes from within and we are interested in what or who lights up your life.
That’s why, as part of the inaugural Birmingham Light Festival, we undertook this self-initiated project to bring a community feel to a large-scale event.
We created a callout asking people what lights up your life. The responses were heartfelt, loving and a little bit overwhelming for us! Each nomination resulted in a small acrylic ingot engraved with the name of their loved one; additionally, a second ingot was engraved showing the reason why they were nominated.
From “because you cook great dinners” to important wedding anniversaries, dogs to cats, buildings to quiet words of thanks, the ingots glistened in the fading sunlight and were lit up in the evenings.
What was really unexpected was how people declared their love for each other in front of the installation, with tears of joy and pure care on a street in the middle of the Jewellery Quarter on freezing-cold nights. The look of amazement on the recipients, matched by the quiet smiles of the nominators, is something we feel honoured to have taken part in.
We cannot wait to create this project again in other light festivals around the country.
Schmaltz moves playing with light
From the bustle of the road, the clatter of the ingots and the shimmer of the light. Schmaltz was hypnotising.
To find out more about the Birmingham Festival of Light and our wider community of connectors in the JQ…
Birmingham Festival of Light
From curated artworks, local artists and organisations getting involved across the city, you won’t want to miss checking something out each time they have one!
JQ Common Room
A new consortium of local organisations, us included, is getting involved in initiatives in the area.
FAQs
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Nothing it’s FREE!
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Yes, but only if you collect from Quartermasters in person in the Jewellery Quarter. Collection dates are TBD but all nominators will be contacted with collection information.
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We are aware of the origins of the word, its evolution through Yiddish, and the German word Schmelzen, meaning ‘melt’. From rendered chicken fat to salted herrings, it's the Hollywood sentimentalism of romance, joy and human connection which sees us using this word for this project.
Just as gold is smelted, remelted and formed, so are our hearts and the reasons so many people visit and shop in the Jewellery Quarter.
Our ingot shape represents the refined raw materials of the jewellery trade.
Our number of nominations, 375, represents the purity of 9ct gold.
We are using Baskerville font in honour of the typeface designed here in the 1750s.
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Don’t worry, each ingot will be numbered and its location mapped. ]
They will be certified by one of our Quartermasters before going on display in the Jewellery Quarter.
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They will be made in the JQ by Quartermaster Kirsty and her trusty laser cutter Bertha.
We are using mirrored acrylic so that the sun’s rays will bounce off the nominations cascading colour around the JQ.
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We are like Magpies hoarding shiny things. This installation may be one that we continue to develop.
We will safely store them as part of our project archives.