Thinking about Jewellery

Yesterday evening the Cathedral Museum hosted an artist talk, in which Lin Cheung considered the problems and contexts surrounding jewellery art, in conversation with writer and art historian Ellen Maurer Zilioli. Lin has already described some of her ideas and approaches to her work in a Lunch talk at Hallein last week. Last night she focused on her ideas and the exhibition currently hosted at the cathedral.

Over the last few years Lin has taught at Central Saint Martins, in London, in part inspired by the arrival Caroline Broadhead as director. Such a location tells us much about the concepts which drive her work. Her teaching has centred on the “philosophy of learning creativity” and the process of creation, rather than focusing only on technique. The location itself is associated with the crafts of goldsmithery and fashion design, elements which influence her teaching. Students are encouraged to think about jewellery, and about what they can do with their training. Ultimately, it is about “asking questions”.

The conversation then turned to the current exhibition. Housed amidst the cathedral’s cabinet of curiosities, the display presents the work of students on a course Lin taught in Antwerp earlier this year. She had asked students to focus on process rather than the emphasis on final product usual in jewellery art, resulting in a series of objects which are a product of process rather than expectation. Visitors are invited to attribute definitions, names and meanings to the objects, thus initiating an interactive experience. While they do not appear to be jewellery in the simple decorative sense, they can gain - or indeed lose - such attributions by the very acts of viewer participation. It is an exhibition which forces us to think exactly how our perceptions define what jewellery is.