JIAKUN ZHANG

Designer biography:

I am a contemporary artist based in Birmingham. After graduating from the MA course at Birmingham City University, where I was fortunate enough to be Artist in Residence there. My artistic journey has been dedicated to the exploration of narrative jewellery. Inspired by the interplay of memory, identity, and culture, My jewellery explores how memories are preserved or eroded over time. By employing the aesthetics of nostalgia, I initiate debates about the nature of nostalgia itself, investigating the role of art in representing the past and the emotions it evokes. Through this narrative approach, I encourage viewers to reflect on both personal and collective historical memory.

Collection concept:

Making jewellery is like writing a narrative essay - using the combination of elements of time, place and people to tell personal stories and revisit the past. I copied things that had disappeared to make a connection to the past. I eschewed metaphorical abstractions, choosing to revisit the past and history with basic responses to reality. They could be old newspapers and the information they carry, or old photographs with traces in their rough texture. The work evokes a sense of time and tragedy through the fragmented form and texture of fragmentation. The overlapping arrangement of papers and photographs serves as a visual metaphor, much like turning the pages of a book - unfolding a narrative of memory and history, inviting the viewer to turn the pages and explore more deeply private feelings and emotions to reflect on and honour the past.

Jiakun Zhang (UK)

JIAKUN ZHANG

Designer biography:

Collection concept: