ZOË KAVANAGH
Cluster Contemporary Jewellery Exhibitor | December 2024
ST JUST CEMETERY RING | 2024
Zoë Kavanagh, the maker behind Brother Banquo and Queen, is known for creating highly unusual, sculptural, textural pieces to adorn the body. Born out of drama and intrigue, her work, made for two fictional, undead characters, is otherworldly and spans the realm from daytime reverie to the surreal, featuring mythical creatures and wildly fantastical characters from the depths of Zoë’s imagination.
INDUSTRIAL BROOCH | 2024
ST JUST CEMETERY RING | 2024
Exploring the concept of a sense of place, Zoë is influenced by the wild, rugged landscape of far west Cornwall, combined with the industrial tall buildings of Liverpool. Her dramatic wearable sculptures evoke a rugged, desolate feeling, simultaneously lonely and gnarly, yet also undeniably striking, providing a deep sense of belonging and connection to the land for the wearer. Zoë chooses to work with metals that are considered non-precious in the jewellery world to create highly precious, skillfully crafted pieces. Her bronze, brass, copper, and silver creations focus on the beauty of the ageing process, embracing oxidation. The fascinating tarnish tells the story of the wearer’s skin and activities, marked by its unique patina over time.
ST JUST CEMETERY RING | 2024
DECAY | 2024
Brother Banquo and Queen is an otherworldly, somewhat gothic jewellery—almost steampunk in style—with a penchant for creating magical talismans often centred around the inevitability of death, blended with magic and the enchanting Atlantic sea. Born out of a love for the wild, rugged Cornish landscape where Zoë, the maker, lives, and the industrial-gothic landscape of Liverpool—a place Zoë feels at home in—her work is an intriguing blend of both contrasting influences. The result is wearable, almost post-apocalyptic debris.
WORK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE SOON
INDUSTRIAL CHAIN | 2024
These desolate pieces often feature gemstones set into long tubes protruding from the jewellery, reminiscent of a watchtower, as though the gemstone guards and scans the surrounding area for something... though what, we don’t know. The addition of gold to some pieces brings warmth to the desolation. Each piece is a treat for the senses.
To further enhance the concept, Zoë’s pieces are made with two undead characters in mind: the decadent monk Brother Banquo and the elusive Queen. Zoë crafts her pieces through the dance of fire and metal, fusing, reticulating, and melting mixed metals together to create intriguing combinations, textures, and sculptural details, often with almost hidden gemstones set into the craggy peaks of once molten metal. Zoë’s work is inspired by the ultimate question: what lies beyond death?
ST JUST CEMETERY RING | 2024