Juanita
Juanita is an artist of conceptual custom-made grills as he began to develop an individual style and fascination for small sculpture pieces, jewellery and mouthwear. With the rise in interest for grills, these quirky accessories have “become weapons for feminism and LGBTQ+ struggles” as told by Adrien Flores, aka Juanita. Symbolism lies at the heart of Adrien’s work and the realisation that the mouth is something we should not be ashamed of is key to understanding his concept. Juanita creates all of his grills personally, from the the design, to the completed pieces as he takes great pride in the process. He is currently living and working in France and uses his time to continue experimenting and creating.
You were living and working in Brussels, can you tell us about your creative journey and how you got to where you are today?
I'm no longer in Brussels, I've gone back to France. At the moment I'm thinking about where I could settle down for a few months. I like not to stay too long in one place and meet new people. I used to study fine arts in France. I worked a little with all mediums, but I felt more like a sculptor. Little by little I decided to reduce the size and weight of my sculptures. I realised that jewellery had all the conditions I needed to be comfortable with my artistic practice:
- alive (since they are worn by people)
- light and compact
- careful and practical (to make art and craft dialogue)
- political (even if the body is always political)
What sparked the idea of creating such unusual artistic pieces that are made just for teeth?
Before making jewellery, my work was about the tools that allow us to modify the identity frames that are attributed to us by Western societies from birth. How to construct and deconstruct oneself through representations of oneself, copies of oneself that one alters, modifications of oneself through disguise and artifice. The body was already very present then. When I began to take an interest in the mouth I found a bottomless well of symbolism. The mouth is loaded with social codes that are interesting to play with. The mouth is our intimacy, our interior that we present to each other. Teeth are an indication of our health, our social class, our age, if we smoke, if we drink. In my opinion the mouth is what says the most about us at the first social contact, and yet, in terms of oral ornamentation, we see very little jewellery developing in Western societies. Yet it is surely one of the first areas that interested humans, teeth have always been a fascination for humans. We already find pierced teeth inlaid with precious stones among the Maya. There were also women in Japan who practiced the "Ohaguro", the art of blackening their teeth in black. Even today, tribes in Indonesia or among the Pygmies in Africa cut their teeth in points. There is a whole range of dental modifications and jewellery.
Grills have recently become trend-setters within the fashion and beauty industries, but were actually first worn by hip hop artists in the 80s. Why do you think they have suddenly peaked in popularity?
Even today the people who wear them the most are musicians. It's like any fashion, it goes away and comes back. Fashions come back and they're updated. In the 80s the codes conveyed in dental jewellery were those of race and social class. Today these jewels have also become weapons for feminism and LGBTQ+ struggles.
I think if we see grills anywhere today it's largely thanks to Dolly Cohen, she paved the way for this field of jewellery. She turned what was very massive and hard to wear into sexy and refined jewellery. What's great is that today people are used to tooth jewellery that they are ready to see more eccentric things, more difficult to wear. Maybe also more conceptual.
What kind of responses do you get about your work, bearing mind it could be quite disconcerting to some people?
I have a lot of types of reactions, people who don't understand, who try to project themselves wearing my pieces and imagine them uncomfortable. My clients wear them often, sometimes even every day, it's part of them now. It must be said that some pieces are more destined for the fields of art and fashion, and are therefore difficult to wear in everyday life, and others are more like classic dental jewellery, which can be worn all the time. Once again I try to make sure that the art and craft of my work is totally connected. When I make a piece of art I try to make it portable, comfortable as possible, and when I make dental jewellery for a client, I try to see it as art, I want it to make sense, to be symbolic, to fit the person I'm making the jewellery for. A bit like an in situ work, where the context is essential. I think overall I'm very lucky, people who follow my work seem to understand my approach, and if they don't like it all the time, they understand the message. That's what's most important to me.
There is a futuristic style to your work, is there a reason you create in this way?
I believe that my work is pretty much rooted in reality. It can seem disturbing and futuristic, but I think what matters to me is that it's alive. Connected to the body and the flesh. That's why I take great care to put the photographs of my pieces in context. I don't want to show them in showcases like works of art. Ideally I would like to be a weapons maker, supplying weapons, new codes to minorities to go to war. Maybe that's what gives my work that aggressive, sometimes violent side. Yet, for example, when I make a piece like the one with metal filaments, like material that drips out and holds the mouth open, it's not an instrument of torture that prevents you from closing your mouth. Rather a piece of jewellery that actively exposes the inside of the mouth and the body to the other. Which shows the mucous membranes, teeth, saliva, tongue and throat. Everything we are taught to hide throughout our education. To put your hand in front of your mouth when you yawn, to eat with your mouth closed, etc... we are taught to be ashamed of our insides. By keeping our mouth wide open we are making an affront to all these rules. We bare our teeth, we shout, we spit.
How do you go about making the actual grills?
Dental jewellery is custom-made jewellery that fits only one person. So there is a necessary phase of molding the teeth, either I do it myself if I have the possibility, or people send me their molds that they have taken at their dentist. I'm very demanding about the quality of the molds. In dental jewellery, the whole issue is in the comfort and in the way the jewellery fits. For this, it is necessary to work with the most faithful copy of the client's teeth. Then I have my own workshop/laboratory where I make everything from start to finish. I make the drawings, the models, I sculpt the piece, I melt the metal, and then I do all the work on the piece until the polishing. I'm totally independent, and that's pretty important to me.
What are you planning on creating in the future?
I don't think about it too much at the moment, I feel I need to be 100% on this mouth jewellery project, I know I still have a lot to say and there are still a lot of things to think about. Although, for example, right now I'm working on a mask. I'm also doing a lot of experiments with materials, not always conclusive. I feel like using something other than metal, even if I find it an inspiring material, I find its use more and more complex on an ethical and ecological level.
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courtesy JUANITA
interview GABY MAWSON
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