LONDON.- Annoushka Ducas presents Tools, an exhibition which for the first time displays the complete spectrum of Nathalie Hambro’s broad-based artistic practice and unveil a new, limited-edition Annoushka collaborative jewel as well as an innovative look for her 41 Cadogan Gardens studio. It is the latest collaboration for Art at Annoushka.

On view there for six weeks, Tools is inspired by Hambro’s “passion for hardware”. She has worked with a trove of industrial components and weighty builder’s implements to conceive sculpture, objet d’art, photography, video as well as a limited edition artist’s book. The principal material defining the show is steel. Though it is considered a common metal, Hambro prizes its versatility and has long worked with it, initially to conceive a range of accessories which became sought after and acquired by museums because of their daring sculptural beauty. “When I look at steel I have a strong emotional reaction,” she explains.

An internationally renowned creative force, Hambro has turned her hand to all manner of design, from interiors to accessories, fashion and fine jewellers. She is also a critically acclaimed gourmet cook and has produced an array of award-winning writing projects. She studied art history at the École du Louvreyet of the decision she made two years ago to pursue photography and sculpture, she classifies her working method as “spontaneous and untechnical”.

Her description belies her rigour and inventiveness. Contemplating an aim of Tools, as she studies two large-scale colour saturated polaroids she produced for the show—which reveal an alluring perspective of a machinist’s age-old tool box—she adds: “I like to create beautiful things but display them out of their original context.”

Her thoughts struck a chord with Annoushka and resonated with the objectives of Art At Annoushka.Establishing the ongoing exhibition series in 2011, Annoushka set out to collaborate with a range of artists to push forward the display and design of fine jewellery. “So it can be experienced in a whole new way,” she explains.

Hambro’s creative process—which is reliant on intricate manual skill and also wielding power tools—brought to Annoushka’s mind her own jewellery-making process. “The tools that Nathalie uses are also very similar to the tools used at the jewellers bench,” remarks Annoushka. “They evoke this wonderful feeling of craft, that is so often lacking in our modern world, and which I try to celebrate through my own work.”

Yet the inventive industrial aesthetic defining Hambro’s works prompted Annoushka to encourage Hambro to go further than merely installing her work on site at her flagship shop and, instead, conjure a bold, decorative environment by curating her entire retail space. “Nathalie’s work immediately resonated with me,” Annoushka goes on. “Her fascination with metal is both similar yet totally different to mine. While hers is an obsession with an urban feel, my own aesthetic is much more femininely crafted. I am really excited about the meeting of the two and to have the opportunity of creating something truly original.”

“The show will work like an installation,” adds Hambro. “My pieces will interact with Annoushka’s boutique interiors.”

A pair of towering, scaffolding-inspired sculptures are site-specific works and made to adorn the bay window from which Hambro will strip off the curtains, so the light streaming in will enhance the shimmer of the polished steel structures from which suspend framed images of “various tools—screws, dies, taps,” adds Hambro.

Mobiles, suspended at the front of the shop, appear like monumental pendants and serve as another showcase for Hambro’s striking tool imagery. Affixed to these cross-shaped hanging art works, which are constructed from narrow strips of perforated metal, is her Cyan Series—namely, prints which are mounted upon squares of cool aluminium seemingly to intensify their ink blue hue.

Brushed stainless steel replaces the velvet lining Annoushka’s jewellery cases. “To lend depth to the cabinet displays,” explains Hambro. The stainless steel mesh embellishing the sculptural objet d’art which she exhibits in and around Annoushka’s display cases, in turn, inspired the ‘Fringe Bracelet.’ Annoushka and Hambro created this new jewel together by layering upon an oval 18-carat yellow gold bangle a tactile layer of oxidised silver chain mail. The seductive ‘fringe’ cascades beautifully upon the wrist and warms to the skin.

The boutique’s white glass rear wall also takes on a new dimension as a film screen to display a video and slide show Hambro produced to illuminate Sin-Unseen. This is her handcrafted artist’s book. It features forty polaroid images of “keys, chains, hands, ears, eyes, feet, breasts, mirrors, numbers, crosses, as well as elusive—or abstract images,” Hambro says, listing her work. “All of the images have a deep relationship with intimate moments of my life expressed through visual fragments.”

The combination lock embellishing the Perspex cover is merely an adornment to suggest the privacy characterising the tome. So do the layers which bind together the hand-stitched publication, including its slipcover made of reflective industrial fabric and the archivist’s gloves which can be worn to turn the pages.

Hambro captured the photos within her workshop. This is how she describes her rambling flat in London’s Victoria because the exquisitely eclectic environ is constantly evolving and therefor serves as a source of inspiration to her. “The images convey my realm—my intimate vision,” she says. “They also reveal you how you can create a completely new world just by looking at your own space.”