THE JEWELRY PROJECT
The Jewelry Project. Polymer clay casts in jewelry boxes, 2016
HD VIDEO, 29'00", JEWELRY BOXES, POLYMER CLAY CASTS, 2016
The Jewelry Project is shaped around an informal discussion on jewelry and identity with a group of Copenhagen women who are all asylum seekers. The women discuss the immaterial value of their jewelry in light of the Danish 'Jewelry bill', enabling Danish border police to evaluate and potentially confiscate personal belongings of asylum seekers entering Denmark. To have one’s entire personal existence, history and worth weighed out in quantities, forms and statistics is truly dehumanizing. The Jewelry Project is a collaboration with those affected by the law attempting to counter this dehumanization and to search for ways to make the deeper consequences of such legislations tangible. The result is a series of negative casts of the asylum seeker's own jewelry, displayed below a screen playing the audio recording of the discussion. The Jewelry Project was recorded in collaboration with the Women's Club at The Trampoline House in Copenhagen.
The Jewelry Project. Still from video, 2016
Crossing the Line: Contemporary Art from Denmark, Critical Distance, Toronto. Catalogue spread, 2016