Armed to the teeth (contemporary jewelry)

Verónica Ruth Frías in collaboration with Guillermo Sáenz

Gun: Sterling silver, oxidized silver patina and gold plated.
Pencil: Sterling silver, oxidized silver patina and gold plated.
Key: Sterling silver and oxidized silver patina.
Spine: Sterling silver with a shiny finish.
Stone: Sterling silver and oxidized silver patina.

Sterling silver and 24 kt gold plated.
Edition: Single piece + P/A

Armed to the Teeth (contemporary jewelry) is a piece conceived as wearable art and is born directly from the work of Verónica Ruth Frías with the same title and in which she reflected on the fear that many women feel; fear of walking alone, fear of being attacked or fear of being attacked in the middle of the night for the mere fact of being women and not being accompanied. The work was formalized as a video installation, in which the central piece is a video of a disturbing Verónica with a fixed and impassive gaze, pointing the barrel of a hunting shotgun directly at us. This powerful image is accompanied by a photograph of the shotgun as a file and a series of "personal" defense objects.

The objects to which reference is made – real objects of real women – are for daily use and can be carried in a bag or pocket, but at a specific moment they can be used to defend oneself. Women all over the world feel that instinctive fear that hangs over them constantly, that heavy shadow of sexual assault, and often place some trust in some object that magically becomes a defensive weapon: a rock in their pocket, a pencil, or some keys wielded as a knife. These objects function as an archaeological vestige of the immediate present of women who, one day after another, walk insecurely through the world.

From these objects arises the collaborative project between the artist Verónica Ruth Frías and the jeweler Guillermo Sáenz, with the intention of decontextualizing the objects of the installation in a series of rings conceived as a piece of art. Five rings in which we can see the pencil, a stone, the front part of a key, a thorn and a gun –as a visual metaphor for the video–. Armed to the teeth (contemporary jewelry) is a set of rings made of sterling silver with a shiny silver finish, oxidized silver patina and 24 Kt gold plated. This generated set aims to take the work of art to that other place of exhibition, the body itself, which serves as a canvas, as positioning and as a way of making visible a real problem that affects us as women.