Clasp me firmly, hold me tight

2023 –

Nowadays I have been thinking a lot about fear. Fear has played a central role in human existence throughout history, but in contemporary society it takes on new dimensions, fuelled by several factors ranging from technological advancements to social and political dynamics. Global warming, war, cancer, pandemics, AI, information overload, among others, fundamentally changes everyone’s life and can contribute to a climate of fear and anxiety. Sometimes I wish there would be a safe place to anchor down.

These thoughts motivated my work Clasp me firmly, hold me tight, which is a series of enlarged jewellery clasps and hooks made entirely out of chains to visualise our longing for security by giving the main role to the clasp within a jewellery piece, and emphasizing its function of providing security.

The loose industrial chains are soldered together into ‘chain sheets’ that are flattened and then formed further in a specific sequence of steps by pressing and hammering them into their final shape. Contrasting this handcraft intensive process with the industrial genome of spring rings, clasps and hooks, I am on the quest to look for the place of craft in a worldwide factory today.