From Walter to Valerie / Conversation Piece
Conversation Piece (Beatrice Brovia and Nicolas Cheng) is one of the participants in 'From Walter to Valerie'. Click here for more information on their project In the Cut.
Biography
Conversation Piece is a collaborative research practice based in Stockholm, Sweden. It was initiated in 2011 by Nicolas Cheng (b. 1982, HK) and Beatrice Brovia (b. 1985, IT) with a strong focus on material culture and craft discourse. Together Cheng and Brovia develop projects across a variety of scales and mediums, blurring the lines between disciplines, and with work ranging from installations to concept-driven jewellery and objects, material research and self-organized exhibitions. Their collaborative work has been published and exhibited internationally since 2011, among others at the Triennale Design Museum, Milan; the Saint-Etienne Design Biennale, Saint-Etienne; the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, Cheongju; Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Hasselt; and Schmuck 2016, Munich.
Conversation Piece won First Prize (professional category) in New Traditional Jewellery at the 2014 Sieraad Art Fair and the Bronze Prize at the 2015 Cheongju International Craft Biennale. Work from their collaboration has entered the permanent collections of Die Neue Sammlung: Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich) and of the Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch.
Conversation Piece won First Prize (professional category) in New Traditional Jewellery at the 2014 Sieraad Art Fair and the Bronze Prize at the 2015 Cheongju International Craft Biennale. Work from their collaboration has entered the permanent collections of Die Neue Sammlung: Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich) and of the Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch.
Project: In the Cut
Milanese mesh takes its name from the city where it was likely first made by local goldsmiths, before mechanization enabled production on a larger scale and at a faster pace.
It is commonly used as a wristwatch band: one such mesh is also available as an option for the coveted Apple Watch. As an element whose main function is to strap a watch to a wrist, it has a decidedly jewellery-like quality.
As a starting point, we searched for ways to emphasize the ornamental quality of the coils of mesh we were given, while simultaneously restraining ourselves to stay within the material’s limitations and properties. How could we open it up with minimal (inter)action?
Furthermore, how could we render the relationship between mesh and chain more explicit?
A coil of mesh is potentially an infinite line: a length of it is cut to measure and according to one’s needs. Once cut, it cannot be extended.
But by carefully cutting by hand in the very middle of a length of mesh, a new access (and thus wearing possibility) is suddenly opened up. Where the object ends and begins is no longer so clear, and a chain-like pattern is revealed in the cut.
It is commonly used as a wristwatch band: one such mesh is also available as an option for the coveted Apple Watch. As an element whose main function is to strap a watch to a wrist, it has a decidedly jewellery-like quality.
As a starting point, we searched for ways to emphasize the ornamental quality of the coils of mesh we were given, while simultaneously restraining ourselves to stay within the material’s limitations and properties. How could we open it up with minimal (inter)action?
Furthermore, how could we render the relationship between mesh and chain more explicit?
A coil of mesh is potentially an infinite line: a length of it is cut to measure and according to one’s needs. Once cut, it cannot be extended.
But by carefully cutting by hand in the very middle of a length of mesh, a new access (and thus wearing possibility) is suddenly opened up. Where the object ends and begins is no longer so clear, and a chain-like pattern is revealed in the cut.