Yellowknife (Jun 23/06) - To designer Jamie Look, jewelry is more than something you just put on.

"I want it presented as something people wear to inspire and provoke," she said.

Jamie Look will put her avant-garde jewelry on display tonight, during a full runway show at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. She said the show, called "Emergence," represents her artistic aims and recent life events. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

Look hopes to do just that tonight during a full runway show featuring her unique jewelry designs at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. It will be her second show involving a full regimen of local models, and her first in a setting as large as NACC.

Look describes her work as "avant-garde body adornment" - large pieces of body jewelry that combine traditional and contemporary materials in abstract, but intriguing configurations.

The pieces are also unique because of their size, she said, as many as can cover a person's entire torso, not unlike a suit of brilliant, intricate armour.

"But they're more elegant than that," she said.

She calls the show "Emergence," which is representative of her artistic aims, but also of where her life is at today - facing the nearing reality of motherhood. She says both are an "explosion of light and life."

More than inspiring her work, Look said her pregnancy has changed how she works, as well.

"It's made me listen to my body," she said, noting it has required the hard-working artist to actually take a break now and then.

Look cut her teeth as a designer in Montreal after graduating from LaSalle College. In Yellowknife, she spent the last year working as a professional designer through her company, Goddess of War.

"War can be interpreted in a violent sense or in an intellectual sense," she said of the name's meaning. "What are you fighting for?"

For Look, that fight is for freedom of expression, for individuality and for "power within yourself."

She said part of the excitement comes from the presentation, as she and NACC volunteer Brian Wainwright have been hard at work creating a custom-built runway, as well as thinking of other ways to use the newly-upgraded facility to its full potential.

"(The runway) is 20- feet (six metres) long and it juts out into the first three rows," she said. The show will feature between eight and 10 models, a crew of 35 and a DJ.

"It's going to be a full-blown, no holds-barred, explosive show."

The show starts at 10 p.m., and Look said it is already taking on a life of its own.

"At this point, there's no turning back. You just have to let it be what it's supposed to be."