He is especially known for his Turbo Princess pendant featuring a mouse wearing a small pearl necklace, and his solid acrylic handbags and suitcases containing guns.
[1][2][3] Born in the Dutch town of Tegelen in 1956, Noten explored careers such as bricklaying and nursing at a psychiatric hospital before applying to art school.
Noten got inspired when he met a stranger on a train, a Jewish man who spoke of the horrors of being in Auschwitz during the Second World War, and about money, poverty and death.
Noten intended the tiara, with small portraits of all Dutch queens positioned as guardian angels on top, to be used in church during the wedding ceremony.
It also gave him the idea of a project he called Design Against Crime in which he collaborated with the authorities to persuade people to give up their guns in return for a work of art.
The Pistol Saints received wide public attention when it was displayed at the 2004 exhibition on contemporary jewellery Geel metalliek: Goud voor Robert Smit at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
[12][72] At art exhibitions the visitor usually is not allowed to touch the displayed objects, not even when they clearly have a functional background like an artistic chair or jewellery.
Mr Claw contains plastic bubbles with small pieces of jewellery inside the visitor can attempt to grab by using the machine's remote-controlled grabber.
[73] At a 2004 exhibition at the Amsterdam art society Arti & Amicitiae Noten used an installation with an industrial robot to show his Paperheadring that contained a tiny paper hat cast in acrylic.
[74][75] On Noten's 2004 trip from Tokyo to Amsterdam he purchased, found or swapped objects that he afterwards transformed into jewelry designs that represented cities he visited, experiences he had, and people he met.
Noten called the project Be nice to a girl, buy her a ring and hoped it would improve the mutual respect between prostitutes and clients, and that it might even introduce a more romantic atmosphere in the red light district.
Noten contributed with a series of porcelain dildos with miniature objects attached, i.e. a car pulling a caravan and a highway lamppost.
[31] In 2008 Atelier Ted Noten provided the renovated Rotterdam art museum Boijmans van Beuningen with a multimedia installation.
First, a life-size sculpture is constructed, which is then transformed into a wearable art object, made out of different materials like nylon, stainless steel, titanium, silver or gold.
[94][95] Noten also produced a limited edition of ten unique pieces, each with a different gold element, called Fashionista Golden Girl.
[100] In 2010, Atelier Ted Noten participated in the exhibition Contemplating the Void that marked the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
[104] In 2010, Noten designed a life-size apple with a golden stem, topped with a small black diamond, called De Verleiding (The Temptation).
Ten innovative international artists in the fields of glass, jewelry, furniture and fiber art where commissioned, including Ted Noten, to create exclusive works for the permanent collection of the museum.
SLOW consists of a golden buste, with the features of ten famous American women, that is completely covered with white 3D-printed nylon daisies.
[111] In 2010 and 2011 Atelier Ted Noten teamed up with Amsterdam-based 3D-printing company Freedom Of Creation (FOC) to create the Dutch Fashion Awards.
Noten started the project with interviews, asking the taxi drivers how they felt about art, what they knew about MIMA and what they would like him, as an artist, to create for their cars.
Then Noten provided 300 taxi drivers with a little brooch and a slightly larger object, both the shape of a wing (referring to the godly messenger Hermes).
[114][115][116] In 2011, Atelier Ted Noten and UK creative company Laikingland designed a modern-day jewellery box called Lady Killer Vol.
The two 3D-printed nylon guns double as make-up bags with lip gloss and wand in the muzzle, the loading chamber serves as a pill compartment (complete with pills, including Viagra), 100 grams of certified silver bullion in the Dior gun clip, 50 grams of 24-karat gold in the Chanel, a toothpick and, in some models, a hairpin and a small vial of perfume.
Each tag provides the smartphone user with additional information on jewelry related topics, i.e. the price of gold or political commentary on blood diamonds or a story about miners.
[120][121] Noten also designed a special 3D-printed glassfiber-filled nylon smartphone (iPhone) cover with daisies and a bicolor ring to match priced at €395.00.
Created out of a pile of thousands of photographs, combined with informational as well as poetic text, the book offers compositions, associations, and narratives to illustrate Noten's work.
[122][123][124] In 2007, a half-hour radio interview was aired in which Noten discusses his monograph with Brett Littman, the director of The Drawing Center art museum in New York City.
I comment upon jewellery as a phenomenon, upon the industry or – like any artist – upon humanity.Noten has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world and he is represented by galleries and museum collections worldwide.
In 2008, Noten received the Dutch Françoise van den Bosch award, which recognizes an international jeweler whose work embodies exceptional quality and innovation.