Of One Who Set Out to Learn the Language of Objects

If Lin Cheung, currently holding the jewellery class at the Alte Saline Hallein, could have any superpower she wanted, I'm pretty sure she'd choose sapient touch, a power that lets you access the stories of anything you touch.

These stories that objects contain are of big interest to her as she explains this Wednesday in her lunchtalk. Especially the ones that are broken, lost or whose purpose has been transformed intrigue her to no end. She applies this to normal objects, "as mundane as possible", she adds, exploring the way we perceive and use them, but also to jewellery. She likes to turn objects and situations into jewellery as well, like a wall of a London museum still destroyed from the war, left this way as a memorial. As a child, growing up in London, she would always run her hands over the little craters and other scars adorning the building. In 2009 she came back to the location and made casts of the holes, turning them into broaches .

She's also very interested in the connections between people and jewellery. In Hallein, she hung up pieces of paper in the entry hall and her classroom, asking people to share stories about this relation, of jewellery lost and found, of a piece they especially cherished, of one they came to hate over time ... "This is the fascinating thing also, how objects and jewellery changes over time, when it's found by a new person, when the wearer falls in love, when this love ends."

So, when you make your way to Hallein for one of our lunchtalks or the grand finale on the 26th of August, don't forget to take one of the bright pieces of paper and share your story on it. [mp]