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TO JULY 28
Many consider jewelry frivolous, trivial, not worthy of serious attention (Adm. Boorda obviously not among them). “Chain Gang,” the jewelry show opening tonight at the Target Gallery, challenges the art world’s dismissal of anything wearable as craft with an 85-foot length of 145 commissioned “links.” Jewelry artists did forge the three-to-nine-inch objets, but the creature whose wrist could jangle this charm bracelet dwarfs the imaginary giantess of Beverly Semmes’ Kimberly, the prom dress now hanging in the Hirshhorn. Jewelry artists Linda Hesh and Eric Margry curated the show via chain letter, inviting 50 North American artists to submit a link and to enlist five others to do the same. The invitation included a donut-shaped blueprint for the maximum nine-inch link, which inspired lips, eyes, circular saws, powwows, and abstract spins on a circle in rubber, money, hair, and sponge as well as the traditional metals. Some of the links double as bracelets; Gretchen Klunr Raber sneaked in a necklace by fitting her sterling square with telescoping sides. Other standouts include Tom Odell, who achieved Henry Moore-style heft by bending a thin sheet of bronze, and Joanna Kao, whose chained-together silver chairs could be the set for a Lilliputian No Exit. At the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory, 105 North Union Street, Alexandria. FREE. (703) 549-6877. (Virginia Vitzthum)