Caleb Witvoet

Renovation is a process for the renewal and restructuring of existing buildings, ranging from the many layers of built spaces to their underlying structures. I encountered these sites of deconstruction at a young age in the home my parents were renovating, and later working for my dad in home renovation. Now I integrate forms and materials sourced from renovation in my jewellery practice, making the body a site for rebuilding. This kind of body renovation is a symbolic approach to inner development: how are experiences built and affected by the underpinnings of being? Understanding how a wall is put up and its purpose informs a relation to it. What is the wall preventing me from facing? Becoming aware of the fault is only the first step in the process of self-renovating.

The series of “Bent Wall Frames" are base forms perhaps in a state of wrecking or rebuilding, sometimes both at once and now are not in either. Wood is recycled and left broken, seemingly stuck in peculiar degrees of finish and far from what is considered done. Structures in progress remind me that "undoing" is active and creates possibilities for new direction. The bent form repeats across my work, each time as a redirection of some structure which seemed rigid before the act of renovation. In “Liminal Cedar Broach” the wearer participates in the process by using a tiny crowbar to pry a silver nail which releases the back panel pinned to the frame, underscoring the liminal state of renovation and the body’s role in [un]doing the work.