GOLD RUSH (2016-18) | Nicolas Cheng

GOLD RUSH

(2016-18)

Gold Rush looks at domestic and industrial electronic waste as source from where to mine gold as well as other materials. Our desire for and power of consumption of always newer, more updated electronic goods, combined with the producers’ own interests in pumping out consumer electronics with an embedded expiry date, result in huge amounts of waste from the over-production and over-consumption of electronics. 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 extracting 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.