The idea for these pieces came from a story by Rudyard Kipling written in 1894 about an Indian mongoose, Rikki Tikki Tavi that kills a predatory snake and saves a white child. He then goes on to kill the snakes whole family and remains in the family's garden as their protector keeping all snakes out.
As a child in the England of the early seventies, Jessica digested this story unironically. Rikki Tikki was a hero to her. The mongoose is cute, the snake is scary, but she identified with the child. This is how the best propaganda works. It trains us from an early age to understand our positionality. Growing older, she began to understand how Britain had colonized India and killed and terrorized anyone who got in the way.
"My jewelry, like my art, is an externalization of issues that I am processing emotionally, intellectually or both. For me the fight between the mongoose and the snake is a fight for the truth behind what we are told. They are both beautiful animals who have been used in an allegorical tale to talk about collaborators and rebels. In reality their's is a fight to survive in a world that is bedeviled by humanity and our relentless desire to control and conquer each other and the world’s resources."
We want to celebrate and admire these creatures in their beauty and wildness. We want them to remind us to take care and do our best to understand the truth of their existence and our own.
