A Beijing exhibition showcases new styles in alternative pieces, Sun Yuanqing reports.

These days, jewelry design is no longer just about precious metals or rocks. They are more about style concepts.

With many avant-garde pieces on display at the ongoing Beijing International Contemporary Metal & Jewelry Art Exhibition, one can't help but wonder: Is this the future of jewelry?

The exhibition in its third edition, opened at the Beijing World Art Museum on Sunday under the theme "uniting differences, merging innovations", and runs through Nov 21. The event brings together more than 500 works by some 50 artists from China and 19 other countries including the United States, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The works - ranging from fashion design and handcraft to the exploration of new materials and techniques - have some designers expressing their social and environmental concerns while others their personal emotions. The works were selected for their originality, according to Shi Jingsheng, exhibition curator.

Sofia Bjorkman, a renowned Swedish designer and owner of the Stockholm-based Platina gallery, brought a collection of sooted, handmade silver jewelry, which is inspired by the remains of a relative's burned-down house. While the original jewelry is heavily oxidized, it intrigues the viewer to imagine its backstory.

"I believe jewelry fascinates, annoys and tickles," says Bjorkman. "I make jewelry that questions unwritten structures and (I) show jewelry that attracts others to feel."

Award-winning Thai designer Noon Passama Sanpatchayapong showcases a collection of chain - inspired jewelry. In the collection, she explores new ways of connecting chains, dividing, sequencing, sizing and layering the components. The result is a series of bracelets and necklaces crafted from rigid clay and silver.

"For me, making is thinking," says the designer. "I was looking for a form that is not specifically related to anything, something that I am not used to. It is a shape that you can interpret by yourself. It's not interesting to me if it looks like something as familiar as a leaf."

Seliena Coyle, a tutor at Irish National College of Art and Design, turned to her native culture but took it to the next level. She combines silver with bog oak, a material unique to Ireland. The bog oak was buried in peat bogs thousands of years ago and preserved from decay, she says. The delicate contrast between the two materials gave rise to a collection of elegant, modern brooches.

Coyle says that although Ireland is known for the quality of its jewelry, she feels the innovative designing of products is often neglected there.

Globalization has led to the homogenization of design that is seemingly untouched by individual culture or practice.

"I have made a deliberate attempt to construct a new contemporary Irish aesthetic," she says.

Timothy Michael Veske-McMahon, assistant professor of the Pratt Institute in New York, presents a series of wearable, concept-based works that started when he was living in Estonia, with "a sense of isolation as a foreigner". He also instills in his works the challenging experience of living in New York as an artist.

"My work is about communication. It's jewelry that can act as a sign or signal. I do jewelry because ... it crosses language barriers," he says.

New York-based Chinese designer Hu Naishu and her husband He Wei fuse their expertise in sculpture and performance art in jewelry design. Strawberries, bananas and steamed buns are transformed into playful necklaces and brooches that Hu says can act as ice-breakers in conversations.

"Sometimes, people tend to take cultural barriers too seriously. With food as a universal language, things can be much easier," Hu says.

The exhibition is held once every two years in Beijing.

Contact the writer at sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 11/16/2015 page7)