So Fresh + So Clean 2021
Our annual online international student exhibition
All applicants are Student Level Members
2021 Project Chair and Lead Juror
Sarah Parker, EM Students VCU Chapter
2021 Guest Jurors:
Susie Ganch, Brian Fleetwood and Madison Manning
So Fresh + So Clean 2021 Award Winners
Khajornsak Nakpan
2021 EMERGING ARTIST
Prize $1000
PhD Candidate, Program in Design, Silpakorn University, Thailand
“One of Khajornsak’s widely known works is “Innovative Synthesized Melanin from Soil as Biomaterial Substitute to Create Body Ornaments for the Future”. The research builds upon a study on the abundance and changing qualities of soil. It is part of an experiment to create an artistic substitute material by synthesizing natural fibre and melanin from good bacteria to cellulose sheets. The process is a clean technology and produces zero waste. The result is a textile substitute material, which is human, and nature friendly. The material is an innovation that can drive an investment on environmental friendly art and design business. The entire process from designing to production focuses on using the clean technology to reduce pollution, maximizing natural resources, and decreasing dependency on imported materials.
Following his success in the innovative material, Khajornsak applies the result to other products to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the material. The products respond to the Sustainable Development Goals-SDGs. Apart from creating an aesthetic experience, he also tries to disseminate the knowledge through presenting the research in different international academic forums. In this near future, Khajornsak aims to continue to drive the creation of new materials to improve the innovative body ornamental design and harmonious living. The relationships between humans, the biomaterial, and nature, can lead to a ‘balanced reality,’ which enables us to preserve the “ecological cycle of happiness.”
Kirra Hellfritsch
2021 JUROR'S CHOICE
(Brian Fleetwood, Susie Ganch, Madison Manning, and Sarah Parker)
Prize $500
Bachelor of Fine Arts Jewelry/Metal Arts 2020, Bachelor of Fine Arts Sculpture 2021, California College of the Arts, USA
“I’m Not Okay
Stuck in the dissonance between what inhibits us and our desire to be unapologetically ourselves can be isolating. For some, that dissonance offers a place of safety and reflection in our time of need. That place can also be a cage that becomes hard to escape without knowing how to take it off. I create pieces for specific areas of the body where anxiety and self-hate form. These introspective representations harness the power of intrusive obsessions to transform our perception of self. The materials hold personal history, representing the confined and restricted emotions which are then repurposed into wearable items. The final pieces unravel the source of frustrations, then transform them into extensions of the body. Each piece is an exploration of how we wear masks to process the outside world. Thin black lines of the metal engulf our solace, pulling silently on the skin as they obstruct moments of flickering clarity. We wear the weight of our worry, looking for resolve in the softness of our aesthetic prison. By integrating jewelry-making techniques with textile processes, including sewing and fabric dying, raw edges create a tactile experience. My process accentuates the handmade by fabricating cold connections in metal and using large stitches with thread. By working with recycled materials that already exist, I am able to repurpose their lives and rewrite memories.
If my work still exists seven generations from now I will be very impressed with the future’s ability for preservation. Being an interdisciplinary artist working in both metalsmith and textile arts, my work consists of simple metals and found fabric. Following my own personal moral code, the fabric has been dyed with eco-friendly dyes and held together with natural fibers. The copper used as the structure in these pieces is minimally soldered and colored using natural processes such as liver of sulfur. Brackets and different types of cold connections hold most of the pieces together. There are no synthetic materials ever in my work as I enjoy how time and natural processes can deconstruct most things. I enjoy finding environmentally friendly alternative processes as opposed to chemical treatments and uses. I believe for folks seven generations from now, the deconstruction process of my work may already have begun naturally, and the taking apart and sorting simple.”
Tyler Hurwitz
2021 STUDENT'S CHOICE (VCU Chapter)
Prize $250
Bachelor of Fine Arts 2021, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
“My current body of work is an exploration of fragility and how materials connote sentiment and value. With a primary focus on rings, objects that belong to the hand, I think about the utilitarian nature and specificity of hand tools in juxtaposition to objects that we place on display. Both tell the world the indirect story of who we are. Body adornment serves as a way to communicate to others when we cannot or need not find the words. The use of wood in my work explores the ideas of fragility and value. The softness of wood in opposition to the material characteristics of metal introduces a duality that is meant to question the intentions of wearability versus the sentiment of an object.
Society often focuses on the material strength, reliability, and value of metals, ignoring the ecological and societal cost of their extraction from our planet. But it was this environmental “preciousness” that I was taught as a student. As a metalsmith, this awareness has become intuitive and has shaped the way I solve problems. I focus on the materials that I have, rather than what I can obtain. Using wood in my work began at the start of the pandemic. With this came a determination to push the boundaries of wood without sacrificing strength or sentiment. In doing so, I found that my idea of value shifted. As the timelessness of jewelry allows for each piece to have its timeline and story, wood can function in the same way. This work represents reclamation. The black walnut that reoccurs in my work was salvaged from the closet of a Victorian home, the cherry from a chair leg, the silver from scraps. Intentional sourcing allows me to know an object's history and to showcase its nuanced beauty. These ring objects can decompose or be turned to ash, leaving only sterling silver for reuse. The Future: Because metalsmithing requires many technique-specific tools, I would like to see more emphasis placed on the reuse, sharing, and restoration of old tools. By adhering to this ideal, we can operate as an artistic community in the middle of the 7th generation, rather than initiating it.”
A Message from the Jury:
With increasing concerns around the immanence of global warming, we turn our efforts more aggressively towards the critical review of studio practices. The mission of EM Students is to examine what it means to be an artist in the 21st century, and an important feature of being an artist today is rooted in the inevitability of our works, valuing their existence not only in the context of now but as well, generations moving into the future. This perspective as a maker takes effort! We may sometimes feel powerless in the face of such uncertainty, but the reality is that we have control over the decisions we make in our studios and in the innovation of our designs.
Our mission as adjudicators was to carefully review the full portfolio, paying equal attention to the writing and the images. As a group of jurors, we share certain perspectives as metalsmiths. Each of the four jurors this year has some relationship past or present to the So Fresh + So Clean online exhibition. As well, through our diversity we curate through four contrasting lenses, bringing together a wide range of approaches, understandings, and relationships to the curatorial process. Our hope with this exhibition is to highlight those students who are merging their self-expression with environmental and humanitarian ethics, in that sense this exhibition is a huge success! There are incredible works of art and innovation showcased in this exhibition.
Applicants were asked to explain how their work fits within the conceptual framework of the call: to consider their work through the lens of Seventh Generation Principles, a philosophy that asks that we make decisions today that result in a sustainable future seven generations from now. While incorporating this motivation into one's practice did not necessitate an aesthetic outcome, we wanted to hear from the applicants through their writing. We were looking for sensitive consideration, forward-thinking strategies for materials, and innovation. As a virtual online exhibition, we were charged with the task of selecting work both captured and framed within a compelling image. This often meant that strong work not contextualized in a strong image was left out of the exhibition. The award winners met all of these criteria both through their dynamic work but also their strong, thoughtful writing.
We had the unique privilege of viewing work from all over the world from students whose burning passion is present in the emerging voice for this field. It has been a breath of fresh air to know so many of you have turned your gaze upon shifting approaches in the name of environmentalism and humanitarianism. From creating biomaterials to fabricating hardware that aids in easy deconstruction of artworks, to ethically sourcing raw materials the range of efforts has been awe-inspiring and your work shows those efforts!
It was a pleasure co-curating this exhibit and we hope you enjoy the selected works! Congratulations to our three award winners, and to the selected makers of this year’s So Fresh + So Clean 2021 Online Exhibition!!!
Brian Fleetwood, Susie Ganch, Madison Manning & Sarah Parker
So Fresh + So Clean 2021 Juror’s
So Fresh + So Clean Showcase
So Fresh:
Work that’s happening now, challenging how we define the field of metalsmithing and jewelry.
So Clean:
Looking at how our studio practices impact the environment and human health.
VIEWING TIPS
The best viewing experience will be on a computer. To enlarge, click on a thumbnail image, and hover over the image to view additional text.
This project is made possible by the efforts of our Student Committee at Virginia Commonwealth University.
2021 Project Chair and Lead Juror
SARAH PARKER
Sarah Parker is a Richmond-based artist and jeweler. She is the current EM Student VCU Chapter Chair and is in her second year of study at VCU in the Craft/Material Studies Department in Metals/Jewelry. She received her BFA in 2014 at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She is currently investigating “bootleg” jewelry and sculpture within installations as a way to generate access for others. The bootlegs are collaborative in a sense, similar to the way a bootleg tape is recorded from an original, but has by nature of being bootlegged, transformed into a new work, often with an apparent sincerity of haptic naivety, and the signature signs of crude reproduction processes. She sees herself as part of a lineage of American Narrative Jewelers and views the bootleg as the ultimate form of Americana. She has exhibited regionally and was a 5-year member and co-curator of a local, DIY exhibition space in Boone, North Carolina called Nth Degree Gallery and Studios.
2021 Guest Jurors
Susie Ganch (she/her) is an artist and educator living in Richmond, VA where she is Associate Professor/Metal Area Head for the Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her MFA from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Part of her practice is Directing Radical Jewelry Makeover, an international jewelry mining and recycling project that continues to travel across the country and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions: Have a Nice Day, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA, How Soon is Now? MS State University, TIED, an ArtForum Critics’ pick, Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA, Land and Sea, Sienna Patti Contemporary, Lenox, MA. Her work has been included nationally and internationally in museum exhibitions including: Smithsonian National Museum for Women in the Arts, MFA Boston, the Design Museum, London, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI, Milwaukee Art Museum. Public/private collections include: LACMA, Los Angeles, CA, Asheville Art Museum, NC, MFA Boston, MA, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, Quirk Hotel, Richmond, VA, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI, and Kohler Company, Kohler, WI. Grants include: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, Theresa Pollack Fine Art Award, a VA Commission for the Arts Grant, and multiple VCU Faculty Research Grants. She is represented by Sienna Patti Contemporary Gallery.
You can find out more: www.susieganch.com and www.radicaljewelrymakeover.org.
Brian Fleetwood (he/him) is an interdisciplinary and collaborative jewelry artist based in Northern New Mexico. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Brian was drawn to jewelry as a format due to its unique ability to mediate between a body and the space it occupies. Informed by traditional stories, a background in biology and ecology, and lived experience on the autism spectrum, Brian uses experimentation with material and process to create work that aspires to behave in similar ways to living things. This practice explores epistemologies, taxonomies, and the parallels between the way ideas and living organisms grow, spread, and evolve. Brian holds an MFA in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently an assistant professor in Studio Art at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Madison Manning (she/they) is an artist, educator, and scholar. Manning holds her BFA in Jewelry Design + Metalsmithing from Texas Tech University and her MFA in Sculpture + Performance from New Mexico State University. She has been in Artist-in-Residence at DE-CONSTRUKT [projekts] in Red Hook, Brooklyn and Arts, Letters & Numbers in Averill Park, New York. Her art work has been shown at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Illinois as well as throughout Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and New Mexico. Manning’s research has been both published and presented. Her article, Honest Queer Art Education in the South, has been published in Visual Arts Research Journal: Queering Art Education. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Media, Art & Text program focusing on the intersection of queer theory and craft materiality.
