We are pleased to present our first limited edition of Christmas ornaments initiated by John M Armleder. The artist has long been interested in the iconography of Christmas, to which he often refers in his work, from the Christmas songs produced by his music label Villa Magica Records to the Christmas trees he incorporates in his installations. 

JRP|Editions and Armleder have invited six artists to create their own versions of the traditional Christmas bauble for a unique and creative Christmas celebration!

The 6 artists included in this edition are:

• John M Armleder:

This ornament is a reproduction of a human brain, one of John M Armleder’s most iconic images. He has used it many times since the late 1980s on wall paintings and as sculptures in different materials and sizes. This bauble creates the absurd situation of active brains admiring a shiny sulphurized glass brain, at once decorative and philosophically puzzling.

• Grégory Bourrilly:

As in a Christmas fairy tale, Swiss artist Grégory Bourrilly downsizes the Earth as a Christmas ornament. It is light, fragile, and requires our utmost care. On the other hand, it is free as a soap bubble, impermanent, and seems to poke fun at frivolous human worries. 

• Olivier Mosset:

Olivier Mosset takes on the cube, a generic form in the history of abstraction and modern art, from Cubism of the 1910s to the iconic minimalist structures of the 1960s by Tony Smith. Playing with the geometric shape of the bauble (usually a sphere), the artist turns it into its cubic counterpart, with a silver glitter overlay. 

• Virginia Overton:

American artist Virginia Overton’s design is a delicate adaptation of her sculpture Untitled (Pink Buoys for Venice), originally created for the 2022 Venice Biennale. The original spherical buoys were made of glass in the luminous pink hue of Venetian streetlamps, covered in salvaged fish net and installed in the lagoon at the Arsenale. They were reminiscent of the buoys used by sailors to hold fishing nets, and in this diminutive variation, can now be hung on a Christmas tree. 

• Mai-Thu Perret with Ligia Dias:

This Christmas ornament is a miniature version of a 2005 life-size papier-mâché sculpture Heroine of the People (Revolutionary), with garments by designer Ligia Dias. It depicts a female revolutionary fighter wearing a uniform and waiting patiently for her execution with a rope around her neck. This fighter is at peace, sitting in the lotus position, with one hand pointing toward the ground, in a gesture known, in Buddhist statuary, as calling the Earth to witness. 

• Blair Thurman:

Is this a fragile and sophisticated Christmas ornament disguised as a deadly 700g pétanque iron ball, or is it a glass fist in a chrome glove? It embodies a complex relationship with Christmas iconography and highlights how deeply tradition mingles with popular culture. Among Blair Thurman’s references is the 1979 horror/sci-fi movie Phantasm, in which the murdering fiend is a deadly flying chrome ball.