Portfolio > Keys

Smulovitz Echniops Globe Thistle Key
Echinops/Globe Thistle Key
sterling silver, amethyst
5 7/8" x 2 5/8" x 2 5/8", chain 33" photographed by Jim Wildeman
2003

What does this key unlock?
What is behind the door you wish to open?
Is it a secret garden? A magical world to escape into, or your backyard?
Or perhaps, instead of unlocking, you wish to keep a special object or place secure.
Maybe you hold the key to the last bit of untouched wilderness, or the key to the secret
of life, or maybe it’s just a key to your old apartment where the locks have been changed.

When you hold a key, you hold power. In many cultures, for example traditionally in Scandinavia and still today in Nepal, keys are displayed on the body like jewelry to show status. Keys have a long history, ranging from the ordinary, mundane object to the ritual object to the symbolic gesture (i.e. key to the city). It is not so much the key, as it is what the key can unlock that fascinates us.