Artist's Statement
I feel awe and respect for natural and man-made objects which have been there and lived since ancient times.
This idea is deeply rooted in my origin: Japanese culture and environments. The Japanese respect, understand and accept nature as one of their members. I am fascinated by Japanese traditional architecture, which is an essential part of human lives as a central part of a culture and a place where people have basic connections with natural surroundings.
I am inspired by Japanese unique architectural characteristics: natural materials and colours, dark and bright contrasts, linear forms, geometric shapes and spaces.
Since human beings live in architecture, there are some reasons in each element. I have researched theoretically and visually into those handed down traditions and tried to bring them into my pieces of jewellery.
My work explores a connection with human bodies and how the wearer and viewer interact with each other, themselves and the objects. Also, studying the principle of Zen and the essence of the Japanese love of nature helps me to understand people’s attitude behind their culture.
Drawing is an essential part of my creation, especially collaging. By adding elements onto others, I always find many different ways of assembling these elements in both drawing and creating jewellery. This technique also helps me to break down my original thoughts into different ideas, and to find new ideas and designs by abstracting elements.
Enamelling with simple colours enables me to explore my images of natural materials and textures which can be found in Japanese architecture.
I have also challenged and investigated contemporary ideas of jewellery as sculptural objects or body pieces. I do not force people to wear a piece in a certain way, but want people to play with my pieces and find their own ways of wearing them.
Photograph by A Tarnowska.