2017-19
NU JADE
CONVERSATION PIECE, JADE, AMULET
WORK EXHIBITED:
PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE (DE), SCHMUCK - IHM (DE), ALCOVA (IT), DROOG DESIGN (NL), OBJECTSPACE (NZ), KUNSTNERFORBUNDET (NO), RIAN DESIGNMUSEUM (SE), NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN, TRONDHEIM (NO)
In Confucius’s Book of Rites, jade was described as morality, justice, truth and earthy beauty. The work of Nu Jade, created from industrial waste – jade stone and motherboards, reflects on the apotropaic functions associated with materiality of jade: from notions of protection to concerns towards personal and environmental health. The Nu Jade series poses questions about environmental safety and e-waste processing.
2018-19
CRAFT REMEDIATION
REMEDIATION, PLACE MAKING, ENTANGLED BODIES
WORK EXHIBITED:
RIAN DESIGNMUSEUM (SE), BARKLUND & CO (SE)
Craft Remediation is a site-specific work in a local cultural space in Stockholm and presents a hands-on permaculture approach for phytoremediation. It aims to discuss how remediation and a praxis of care can be understood in a local community and social context, and what role craft and jewellery may play in this proposition through a more cyclical approach to materiality. The idea of caring and harvesting are explored not only in a human encounter, but are materialised and extended to nonhumans, particularly plants collected from the neighbourhood of Aspudden in Stockholm, and technology used to measure photosynthetic activity in plants.
The investigation started at Vinterviken in Aspudden, Stockholm, a post-industrial site where Alfred Nobel invented an enormous revolution for armaments and mining explosives manufacturing: dynamite. The side effect of the industrial activities in Vinterviken that started in the 1860's have led to soil contamination in the area. The project looks into this particular history and landscape, and proposes ways to harvest-care-remediate alternative materials from industrial leftovers and refuse in collaboration with plants.
2016-17
FROM LANDSCAPE TO TIMESCAPE
TROMPE L’OEIL, SILVER, MAHOGANY, MATERIAL FICTION
WORK EXHIBITED:
RIAN DESIGNMUSEUM (SE), EASY!UPSTREAM (DE), KONSTHANTVERKARE (SE)
From Landscape to Timescape, trompe l’oeil patterns of materiality near and far, tend to blur their material identity and aesthetic value, thus blurring the notion of distance. The near and the far raises the question: how do our material perceptions change and respond to authenticity and material norms? I refer to these works as material frictions as well as material fictions, in the attempt to analyse what lies on the material surface as much as through the layers of history.
2016-18
GOLD RUSH
CONVERSATION PIECE, GOLD, MYLAR, KAPTON
WORK EXHIBITED:
PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE (DE), STEDELIJK MUSEUM‘ S-HERTOGENBOSCH (NL), NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN, TRONDHEIM (NO), GALLERY FUNAKI (AU), OBJECTSPACE (NZ), KUNSTNERFORBUNDET (NO), RIAN DESIGNMUSEUM (SE)
Gold Rush, which investigates how gold and other precious minerals are largely used today on the ground of their physical properties - from electrical conductivity, resistance to corrosion and radiations - in the production of consumer electronics as well as for space exploration. Gold together with other minerals, is at the base of their functionality, it is diluted into what we consume and interact with carelessly, hidden into the secret workings and mechanisms of our appliances and daily interactions with them. By domestic mining gold and other precious metals from electronic waste, and rendering these visible on the body through jewellery pieces meant to adorn, the intention is to understand gold's cultural meaning and power in our time.
2014
KINO
CONVERSATION PIECE, CONFLICT MINERALS, GOLD, TANTALUM, OPTICAL FILM
WORK EXHIBITED:
SCHMUCK - IHM (DE), PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE (DE), GALERIE DE ZAAL (NL), MAD - THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN (USA), GALLERY FUNAKI (AU), THE DOWSE ART MUSEUM (NZ), OBJECTSPACE (NZ)
From the silver screen of cinema, to computer and television, to the screen of smart phones, Kino looks at the screen as an ambiguous embodiment of entertainment, human desire and consumption. Part of an installation, a short film is constructed as if it were a readymade piece of jewellery: fragments sourced from films - from the 30s until the present day. Finally, the screen is brought back to the scale of jewellery: a brooch, made from optical film used in smart phones, at once reflective and transparent, gold and tantalum - conflict minerals on which the production of high-tech devices relies - confronts us with the ‘double-edgeness’ of entertainment: a pleasurable consumer good, the production mechanisms of which are way too complex and very seldom transparent.
2011
FAÇADES
CONVERSATION PIECE, MARBLE QUARRY, PINK ONYX
WORK EXHIBITED:
DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL (USA/CH), TRIENNALE DESIGN MUSEUM (IT), GALERIE NOEL GUYOMARC'H (CAN), GALLERI F15 (NO), GALERIE DE ZAAL (NL), KORU 5 (FI), KONSTHANTVERKARE (SE)
Façades is a work that challenges notion of scale through the jewellery medium, and explores nature in its crude simplicity as well as the interference human-nature. It reflects on the coexistence of artifact and nature, where these are juxtaposed, sometimes integrated, rather than opposed; on the mechanisms of identity fabrication - unavoidable and indispensable - as it is the need for ornament.
2016
(IM)PRINT
CO-CURATED EXHIBITION WITH HANNA HEDMAN, BEATRICE BROVIA AND KAJSA LINDBERG; EASY!UPSTREAM, MUNICH (DE)
The co-curated exhibition (IM)PRINT presents works that address different interpretations of the acts of publishing and disseminating, but also of imprinting and impressing. Some of the works on display, investigate the similarity between jewellery and language or typography: how the former allows for potentially infinite configurations, functioning in this way similarly to an alphabet, whose ideal surface and interface for communication is the body and the surrounding space. Other positions bypass for a moment the physicality of jewellery and objects, and rather look at the role and practice of the artist as publisher, editor or producer.
Participants: Lin Cheung, David Clarke, Nicolas Cheng, Liesbet Bussche, Silke Fleischer, Beatrice Brovia, Hanna Hedman/Sanna Lindberg, Nils Hint, Göran Kling, Kajsa Lindberg, Yuka Oyama and Niels Van de Wouwer.
2017-18
DON'T STEAL THE KIL
FINE SILVER, WOOD, SLAG, STONE, IRON, GLASS
WORK EXHIBITED:
RIAN DESIGNMUSEUM (SE), KONSTHANTVERKARE (SE)
The doorstop known for its ability to misplaced or become misbehave. It denotes the possibility that unnoticed things can act and how these objects able to disrupt or alter productive spaces — keeping certain doors open, or disappearing from where they should be, thus disturbing our expectations. Through the work Don’t Steal The Kil, I have observed how these material objects placed on different locations take on meaning beyond their relational context — it moves from abandoned site to museum space, morphing from neglected things to ornament.
2013
TENDENSER · TENDERNESS
NORDIC EXHIBITION SERIES TENDENSER; GALLERI F15 (NO)
Over the course of the past four decades, the exhibition series Tendenser (Tendencies) has been held at the Galleri F15 in Moss, Norway. The purpose of this ongoing project is to gather together the most recent, inventive craft work in the Nordic Countries. Curator for the 40th edition of Tendenser is Glenn Adamson.
Participants: Gunnel Wåhlstrand, Mia E Göransson, Marie Torbensdatter Hermann, Karina Nøkleby Presttun, Caroline Slotte, Fredrik Ingemansson, Nicolas Cheng, Pernille Braun, Beatrice Brovia, Maja Gunn, Miro Sazdic Löwstedt and Hanna Hedman/Sanna Lindberg.
2010
THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS
BROOCH/NECKLACE, LOOFAH, SISAL FIBRE, AMBER STONE
WORK EXHIBITED:
GALERIE ROB KOUDIJS (NL), GALERIE MARZEE (NL), TALENTE - IHM (DE), PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE (DE)
What does nothingness mean? It is void, silence, unpretentious modest, poetry, virtually invisible. If I relate beauty to nothingness, what happens? Is nothingness sort of an absence of beauty? Or it is portrayed by our culture and society, and, in such case, can I define this absence of beauty?
The Beauty of Nothingness, is consists of 15 pieces of jewellery explored with different sensitivity and insight and which is culminating in a coherent body of work. The pieces exists in a gray zone somewhere between nothingness and purity. Each piece, challenging us through the beauty itself but also through the uncanniness of the pieces. Materials I work with are bathing materials such as natural sponge, sisal fibre, loofah and cotton for cleaning up our body.
Such unevocable sensations of beauty are extremely subtle and hard to acknowledge. One needs to train one’s eyes and go beyond the layers to discover the beauty of nothingness.
2015
TERROIR
CULINARY CULTURE, LOCALITY, NEAR-FARAWAY
WORK EXHIBITED:
CULTURAL EMBASSY AMSTERDAM (NL)
Terroir looks at notion of distance and sets out to explore mechanisms and geographies of commodity from near-faraway. The final works including damask tablecloth, silver napkin and tableware coded with socio-economic material meanings in a dining setting, it aims to discuss dissolving locality and sense of place through culinary experience.
2013
LINERS
BUCKS 'N BARTER, BANKNOTE, TRADE, CURRENCY
WORK EXHIBITED:
BAYERISCHER KUNSTGEWERBEVEREIN (DE), GALERIE KULLUKCU (DE), SIERAAD ART FAIR (NL)
Through a history of ruled countries and rulers, raw materials and goods have been exchanged becoming ultimately familiar.
An inked piece of paper money on which the history and destiny of nations is recorded and inscribed. What does the materiality of a colonial banknote indicates, when most reference of national symbols/currency are absented? And only a handful of details (depictions of fruit, local plants, and scenes of daily life) in pastel colours remain visible at the bottom of the carefully fabricated pastry liners. These fragile, delicate liners become containers of empty space, suspended on hand-carved white marble sweets.
2011
ON THE DOORWAY
CONVERSATION PIECE, DOOR HANDLE, MATERIAL AGENCY
WORK EXHIBITED:
DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL (USA/CH), TRIENNALE DESIGN MUSEUM (IT), GALLERI F15 (NO), SAINT-ÉTIENNE DESIGN BIENNALE (FR), GALERIE DE ZAAL (NL)
A small domestic hardware that have intrinsic jewellery qualities and more than one affinity with it. If we consider the domestic space as a body, we might start to look at these objects, door handles to be more specific, as appendixes, small organs creating an anticipation of the space that discloses behind the door. Despite being fundamental components in the domestic landscape, they stand on the doorway, ready to open but also seclude, allowing an access or impeding it.
Materials, junctures, mechanisms are thought of as for jewels and, as jewels, the final objects become something to be taken care of: fragile, delicate and colloquial. The door handles are thought of as jewels; each object has its complementary on the other side of the threshold, together reflecting on the dichotomies between private-public, familiar-uncanny, inner-outer, self-others.
2012-14
OBJECT OF VERTU
CONVERSATION PIECE, SILVER MIRROR, 21CM X 29.7CM, VANITY MIRROR, JEWELLERY BOX
WORK EXHIBITED:
DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL (USA/CH), GALLERI F15 (NO), GALERIE DE ZAAL (NL), Z33 (BE), GALERIE PHOEBUS ROTTERDAM (NL), KONSTHANTVERKARE (SE)
"I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over."
Excerpt from Mirror by Sylvia Plath
Object of Vertu is thought of silver mirror objects of the everyday, inhabiting our surroundings and offering themselves to a more direct and subtle interaction, awaits to be filled in with reflected contents.
2013
BUCKS 'N BARTER
CO-CURATED EXHIBITION WITH BEATRICE BROVIA, FRIEDERIKE DAUMILLER AND KATRIN SPRANGER; GALERIE KULLUKCU, MUNICH (DE)
The co-curated exhibition Bucks 'N Barter features works from nine international artists active in the fields of jewellery, craft, product and experience design, with site specific installations, newly commissioned works and a selection of thought-provoking pieces, all together investigating a complex and multifaceted topic, that of the human tendency to trade and exchange and how this has shaped not only the society we live in but also the way we perceive and relate to things and materials. Key themes touched upon are value and currency, material culture, barter and exchange in terms of economics, symbols, knowledge and cultures; the relationship between the market and the applied arts, between physical and virtual.
Participants: Hilde De Decker, Nicolas Cheng, Richard Elenbaas, Tzu Ling Lee, Kajsa Lindberg, Beatrice Brovia,
Katrin Spranger and Prang Lerttaweewit.
Scenography: Friederike Daumiller
Graphic concept: Daniela Wiesemann
2012-13
CHINOISERIES
CLOISONNÉ, HOLLOWWARE, DISSOLVING, CULTURAL HERITAGE
WORK EXHIBITED:
DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL (USA/CH), GALERIE CAROLINE VAN HOEK (BE), PAD PARIS (FR), GALERIE DE ZAAL (NL), ASIA SOCIETY (HK), KONSTHANTVERKARE (SE),
SINGAPORE NATIONAL DESIGN CENTRE (SG), HANGZHOU CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL JEWELRY AND METAL ART TRIENNIAL (CN)
Chinoiseries – a group of hollowware pieces made in part using cloisonné, a metal enamel technique that spread in Asia after the 14th century, and that was developed in China during the Ming Dynasty – I re-examined the term ‘chinoiserie’ as a recurrent idea and imagery rooted in the eighteenth-century European fascination of East Asian cultures. The research work was situated in one of the last surviving cloisonné enamel workshops in Beijing.
