The Enamel Experience
International Badge Exhibition

ETC member Elizabeth Turrell has curated an exhibition historical enamel badges from the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg and new interpretations by twenty three highly regarded artists from the UK, Germany and the USA. Following its opening in Hamburg in November 2007 it opened on February 27 2008 at the Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco.

Artists have explored many social issues including abuse of human rights perpetrated by governments, a preservation of the memories associated with the Holocaust, the exploitation of workers in the gold trade and the importance of heeding the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Elizabeth Turrell said, "The exhibition has just finished an extremely successful showing at Museum der Arbeit ('of work') in Hamburg, Germany where over 9,000 people attended. A unique aspect of the museum in Hamburg is the acquisition of an Enamel Badge Factory (Metallwarenfabrik Carl Wild) The Factory produced among other things the majority of badges and insignia for the military including the 'iron cross', societies, commercial organisations and charities during the entire twentieth century, including the Iron Cross.

The fully illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition (ISBN 978-1-906501-00-6) can be ordered from Elizabeth Turrell (elizabeth.turrell@uwe.ac.uk).

The Velvet da Vinci's website includes images of all of the badges:

http://www.velvetdavinci.com/show.php?sid=83