USA, San Diego, San Diego State University, 2019

Is it possible to change the way we view the human body’s need for repair or supplementation?  If it were not one of automatic recoil, how would our perceptions of the body differ, and to what societal affect? I explore this through a series of jewellery objects that combine bodily forms and surfaces with structures and shapes prevalent in jewellery and ornament. They create moments of curiosity and unease and replicate the surface of the human body through biological mimicry.

Using microbial cellulose (MiC) to represent the body, inflated skin-like forms framed in metal imply sites of imagined interventions. The process of growing, manipulating and combining this material with fabricated metal parts has allowed me to create a dialogue between the organic and inorganic; human and machine. When worn, they conjure notions of unnecessary adornment, physical identity and self-ownership through the failed, repaired or supplemented body. I aim to redefine the way we view the supplemented body by encouraging its acceptance in contemporary society.