LAI
Wearing the Memory
This project considers the embodiment of memory and how this concept might be made into wearable ornaments. The resulting works are a memory archive that is enacted between ornamentation and the wearer.
In the process of making, I see my body as the medium to explore the juxtaposition of both the object and the subject, physical and psychic. The thesis develops and expands upon critical ideas such as memory, photography, ornamentation, and body protection.
I developed a visual and an emotional language of a private memory, which begins with photos from my digital album as the inspiration to make contemporary jewellery and wearables. This illustrates how jewellery materializes memory as an abstract faculty of mind and explores the ways in which two-dimensional work may be transformed into three-dimensional objects.
I began with the 3D printed works when reflecting on the fragile nature of digital photography. I manipulated the chosen photos from each month, redrew the outlines of the object/scene, rearranged their positions, and ultimately abstracted the original images.
Transferring these 2D images into objects and wearing them on my body reinforces my ability to recall my memory repeatedly. At the same time, I can share my past with the public while the altered imagery lets me to keep aspects of it private.
