In true Jeremy Strong fashion, the Duende frames are named after an impish demon found in Spanish folklore, a figure that Strong first encountered in the work of the 20th-century Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; the mischievous duende, the actor said, “has been a vital companion in life since then.” In turn, each pair of Duende by J.S. shades will come with a limited-edition chapbook of García Lorca’s 1933 lecture on the folkloric figure, printed in the original Spanish with an accompanying English translation.
García Lorca’s theory of the duende, Strong said, mirrors the actor’s well-documented razor’s-edge approach to his craft. “His idea of the Point Of Danger—that boundary line where you must give up your volition and surrender to the unconscious—is the guiding and essential principle in what I do,” Strong said. “Joyce Carol Oates may as well have been writing about Duende when she wrote, in her [1987] essay ‘On Boxing’: ‘Even as he disrobes himself ceremonially in the ring the great boxer must disrobe himself of both reason and instinct’s caution as he prepares to fight.’ Duende is, to me, the most central and determinative aspect of any creative work.”
Courtesy of Jacques Marie Mage
Courtesy of Jacques Marie Mage
Per Strong, partnering with Mage was an extension of this creative credo. Describing their collaborative design process, Strong said Mage would “send me photos of the creation of the wirecore, of newly minted acetate from his atelier in Japan, of cutting recently unearthed Turquoise in New Mexico with his Acoma Pueblo artist.” They stayed close throughout the process.
“Collaborating with Jerome is as much about content as it is about form,” the actor said. “The design is dictated by shared instincts, a shared quest for a kind of aesthetic perfection and an ongoing search to capture and render something vital. Form is dictated by feeling. We had a great deal of back and forth—he would send me sketches and prototypes and ideas. I would respond with my thoughts and everything evolved in that way over time. Jerome is inspired and nourished by every step of the process, which is contagious.”
Courtesy of Jacques Marie Mage
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