Artist Statement
My current practice explores the overlap between fashion and Jewelry, both of which reflect the complexity of identity. As an artist and designer, my background and training prepared me to dissect and rebuild the relationship between and potential of jewelry and garments. My current work represents a synthesis of the study of form and a critical approach toward contemporary jewelry and fashion aesthetics. I challenge the conventional notions of body adornment and the expectations of how these formats are typically worn on the body. I utilize the recognizable formal qualities of jewelry and clothing and subvert their functions to create a hybridized body of work. Exaggeration, Juxtaposition, shifts in scale, and surrealism are my strategies to magnify the relationship between jewelry, clothing, and the body. The essence of my work embraces people with different genders, hopes to reduce the hierarchy of socioeconomic groups, and strives to express the wearer's individuality. My current practice expands social possibilities and allows for new narratives around the relationship between art, fashion, and life.
Hybrid Garment counters the problem of some clothing and art jewelry never meeting the body. Most jewelry artists and fashion designers spend time on the ideas behind their work and how to express the relationship between the work and the body. Their works are presented through the act of looking in art galleries, museums, or distant drawers, while Hybrid Garment insists on being worn on the street, bus station, and in the supermarket. The result is one-of-a-kind pieces meant to excite the desire within people to wear them on the living body. This is amplified by the interactive and seductive quality of the street space, reshaping and revealing the identity of the wearer —allowing people to re-examine the intimate relationship between clothing, jewelry, and body.
