Jacqui Chan

Chan is interested in jewellery’s life within the system of a city: both as a set of processes that transform ‘dead’ waste matter into something new, and an object that circulates in urban life attached to mobile bodies.

URBAN METABOLISM SERIES, Melbourne 2009-12

The work in the Urban Metabolism Series recounts Chan’s preliminary phase of research. Having moved to Melbourne from Auckland to begin her PhD. Chan walked the streets seeking clues for how to engage and comprehend the complexity of the city. Through a process of gathering then decomposing materials by cutting and reassembling them into new formations with a repeated fold action. Chan explored questions of how jewellery practice might intercept and transform the city’s flows of waste-materials and link them up with the body.

SITUATION PALESTINE, Ramallah 2010

These works were made in 2010 when Chan’s partner took a contract in Ramallah, Palestine.

Chan said “Exploring the city and gathering materials, my lasting impression was the contrast between the recurring boundaries, in place to restrict the movement of bodies….the paradox of fighting over the land-as-territory while the environment fell into disrepair.” In Ramallah Chan was limited to basic hand tools culminating in a series of brooches woven from olive and vegetable cans. Olives are a Palestinian symbol of rootedness to the land, the cans evoking the struggle to retain land in the face of the encroaching wall and Jewish settlements. Reflecting the contradictions of the political situation, with all the brand names on the cans being Israeli.

HOST A BROOCH, Christchurch 2011

Ater the devastating February earthquake, Chan gathered materials from around Christchurch and transformed them into 16 brooches.

from 2010

Urban Metabolism Series Neckware, 2010
Powercoated aluminium flashing ( from construction skip ) Stainless steel pin

from 2009

Urban Metabolism Series

from top to bottom, left to right
Brooch,   vegetable oil tin, stainless steel
Brooch,   vegetable oil tin, stainless steel
Brooch,   galvanised steel, stainless steel
Brooch,   aluminium flashing, stainless steel
Brooch,   vegetable oil tin, stainless steel

From "Jacqui Chan's Exotic Blend" 2009








		Nos 1 - 8 (showing reverse of No1) sterling silver, tin $495 each



		Nos 9 - 12 (showing reverse of No 12) sterling silver $350 each





		Nos 13 - 17 (showing reverse of No 17) tin $275 each