a crowded private view....

Alice Bo-Wen Chang

Previously trained as an architect, I have always envisioned buildings as machines. Architec­tural elements are designed to form spaces that manipulate activities and movement. While jewellery cannot divorce itself from the human body, the most intimate space lies in between the body and the object(s). I approach jewellery design as constructing spaces on the topographic contours.

Experimenting with different metals, plastics, enamel, and combining innovative technology with traditional hand craft skills, I am always in search of new materials and new ways of working. My exploration entitled ‘Bodyspace/bodyscape’ starts from a flat surface as it does not possess a spatial relationship, lines can be cut and pulled apart to create an animated form that express the expanded space.

The uncompromising lines and squares in Bodyspace/bodyscape, repeat in a predictable manner and are folded into endless possibilities of forms and shapes. The rigorous and logical orders result in an unpredictable, even organic growth of variations that contrast and interact with the curvature of the body. The objects perform the transformation that is frozen in time. The manipulation of lines disintegrates the rigor of squares and straight angles, the structure folds, collapses, reconstructs and extends its motion into space. When the action comes to a halt, the movement continues visually.

The study results in a series of undulating solid squares resembling the body landscape. Each of them is a fragment of the body mosaic, and the wiry structure is situated on the tilted fields, grows out of the folded planes, or sometimes converses and dialogues with the unaligned surfaces. The objects can be made small, or large, depending on the number of units; the modular nature of the patterned units allow pieces to oscillate in scale effortlessly. The action in which the movement occurs is presumptuous and temporal, but the effect is long lasting. The colors and textures not only provided a different ambiance, they show the versatility and adaptability. In one of the earrings, the oxidized silver provides a darker background to support and contrast the white structure, of which some of the lines and corners are highlighted with fluorescent pink color. The piece instantly possesses an animated quality, and a very dynamic and hierarchical transition from the body surface to the tip of the angle reaching out to infinity.

Jo Pond

Jo Pond graduated with an MA distinction in Jewellery Silversmithing & Related Products, from The School of Jewellery, Birmingham in 2005. This period of study formed a major turning point. Having been making jewellery since the age of 15, trained firstly at evening classes and latterly at Berkshire and Loughborough Colleges of Art & Design, Jo established her design process and achieved a completely new and original body of work which now focuses her practice.

Jo was awarded for her Narrative Jewellery Collection, winning the 2005 BDI Industry & Genius Awards in the category of Products and Genius. Her work has been exhibited internationally, showcased at selected exhibitions such as Schmuck in Munich, the V&A Museum, London, Price Tower Arts Center, Oklahoma, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam and Contemporary Applied Arts, London.

Born in Chiswick, London, Jo is now based in rural Staffordshire, living in a beautiful building which was formerly a convent. Alongside her practice as a studio jeweller, Jo is now employed as a full-time lecturer at The School of Jewellery. She is a member of Contemporary Applied Arts gallery and the Association for Contemporary Jewellery.

“I come from a family of ‘Ponds’ who appear to have a genetic necessity for hoarding; digging stuff up was the foundation of a passion for objects which others might not quite appreciate. Metal detector finds and loose road-side cats-eyes fashioned the beginnings of a lifetime of habitual collecting.

As a Technician I resourcefully trimmed worn ends off workshop brushes to create much shorter ‘new’ brushes. The off-cuts sat in boxes and were gradually joined by other worn and discarded brushes. To me these were beautiful, bristles or no bristles.

Utilising this drive to collect the unconventional and unwanted, coupled with an aesthetic appreciation of the details of decomposition and change, I choose to incorporate items potentially paradoxical within jewellery, to create beautiful and on occasion, confusing objects.

Employing symbolic references of form, material and technique, I dabble in the potential for wearable items to become vehicles for communication; whether through sense, nostalgia, or knowledge.”