Diamonds are easy to admire and surprisingly difficult to explain. We usually meet them once they have already been polished, set and placed under very flattering lighting, with everything that came before mostly left out of the picture.
[Ayra Starr, Courtesy of Getty Images]
At Frieze Masters, De Beers is rewinding the story with Voyage Through the Diamond Realm, Chapter II: On the Birth of a Diamond. The installation goes all the way back to where diamonds actually begin, which is a lot further away and considerably longer ago than your local jeweller.
At the centre of the experience is a film voiced by Lucian Msamati and Kristin Winters. It begins out among the stars, tracing the carbon that would eventually travel deep beneath the Earth and transform into diamond over billions of years. A fairly major journey for something that eventually ends up sitting quietly on a finger.
[Cleo Sol, Courtesy of Getty Images]
The film gives the room its sense of scale. It takes a process that is almost impossible to picture and turns it into something cinematic, moving from space to the Earth and eventually towards the artists and makers who give the material a new life.
De Beers made its Frieze Masters debut last year with the opening chapter of Voyage Through the Diamond Realm. This second outing picks up the same wider story but zooms in on the birth of a diamond and everything that comes after it reaches the surface. That is where Botswana’s creative traditions enter the picture. A monumental handwoven tapestry by Shifron Mercury Studio sits among the installation’s main works, while Mabeo Studio has created a series of amulets with basket weavers, potters and wood carvers from across the country.
[Lara Browning, Olivia Yang, Lola Clark, Courtesy of Getty Images]
There is the almost ridiculous scale of a diamond’s natural history, followed by work that feels deeply human and tactile. Billions of years underground eventually meet weaving, pottery, carving and hands that know exactly what they are doing.The combination is what makes the experience worth spending time with.
Luxury talks about craftsmanship all the time, but usually once an object reaches a workshop in Paris, London or Milan. Here, the story stretches further back and makes room for the land, knowledge and creative culture surrounding the material.
[Sabrina Elba, Courtesy of Getty Images]
Sabrina Elba, Cleo Sol, Ayra Starr, Sebastian Croft, Saffron Hocking and Lola Clark attended wearing natural diamond jewellery from Ara Vartanian, David Morris, L’Atelier Nawbar, Ananya and Messika. There was plenty of glamour in the room, obviously, but the installation gave people something to look at beyond the finished pieces.
[Saffron Hocking, Courtesy of Getty Images]
That is where Chapter II gets it right. It does not treat the diamond as the end of the story. It places it inside something much bigger, moving from stars and geology to Botswana’s artists, techniques and traditions.
Voyage Through the Diamond Realm, Chapter II: On the Birth of a Diamond is at Frieze Masters in The Regent’s Park from 14 to 18 October. Find out more at debeersgroup.com and follow @debeersgroup.
