Visiting jewelers and metal smiths across China gave me immediate realization of increasing lost of traditional jewelry/metalsmithing practice. The desires to learn, revitalize, and contribute to the traditions of Chines jewelry inspired this body of work. Paper money, “currency for the dead” is used to create the pieces, hinting the sentiment of mourning. Burning paper money at the temples and cemeteries is commonly practiced as offering for the dead, deities, and Buddha in China. Changing the status of a common material such as the paper money and reassigning it a different function as jewelry gives it new meaning. Rearraging familiar symbols like the phoenix to crate new silhouettes; layering the graphics elements creates texture and incorperating old photographs portrays events are the means of creating new context on the body as adornment.

Tzu – Ju Chen
Xiamen, June -2007

Gallery