Hermesignet

1.10.2005

Gold ring with inscription

In several of her works Tanya Ury has adopted the name of Hermè or Herme (her & me):

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Hermeneu­rotic — a collec­tion of works:

• Hermes Insensed 2000 – 2001 (photo series with 15 short stories)
• Building Bridges 2001 (short story)
• Between the Lines or The Three Rs 2001 (short story)
• Holding the Baby 2002 (2 photographs and short story)
• Stick Insect 2003 (short story)
• Getta Life 2003 (short story)
• Night and Day 2003 (short story)
• Herme­signet 2005 (gold ring with inscription)
• Herme 2010 (digi­tally processed 1950’s fashion cover)
• herlookingover­meshoulder 2011 (digi­tally processed 1940’s advertisement)
• herme­sends 2013 (digi­tally processed 1940’s fashion cover)

Herme­signet is not a wedding ring but a signet insignia – a woman’s gift to herself, signi­fying her inde­pen­dence and commit­ment to the essen­tial self. The dedi­ca­tion and inscrip­tion is as follows:

FROM HER TO ME ° ALWAYS BE TRUE TO HER SELF °

My parents named me after the pianist Tanya Ury, having met this artist after a concert of hers in London, when I was only a few months old. My name till that day had been Suzanne Miriam Ury. The piano player was delighted that I was to become her name­sake and commis­sioned her husband, a jeweller, to fashion a talisman as a gift. On the back of this lucky charm, a four-leaved clover of gold with a pearl at the centre, there was a legend that read:

TANYA

SAN FRANCISCO TO LONDON 1952  

TANYA

Though similar in inten­tion as the golden four leaved clover, with the dedi­ca­tion ​“Tanya To Tanya”, the gold ring with a message is however, a pledge, not of one person to another, but of one person to her own being.

Infor­ma­tion

Concept and text: Tanya Ury

Design & manu­fac­ture: Der 4. König, Köln (The 4^th King, Cologne)