About Zadan

Neke Moa, Kuini (2020), pendant, paint plastic beads | Photo credit: Neke Moa

Nanna Melland; Ring of Ignorance. 2019 | Photo credits: Morten Brun

Illustration by Elena Höpfner (2019)

The Zadan Project

“Super Charged—Hopes and Protections on the Body”, is an exhibition of work by BA and MA students at Jewellery Art (HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design) who have investigated the hopes, desires, and fears that prompt us to create amulets and talismans as adornments and objects today. In some pieces, wearers are instructed by the jewellery pieces to fulfil tasks to encourage magic. Which materials have been chosen to protect whom, from what, how, and what promises do we (makers and wearers) make? Many different directions have been taken, but collectively these artworks are “super charged”.

The instinct to cover our bodies with strong magical things is one small reaction to the many uncontrollable events that impact everyday life. Amulets and talismans are believed – by some – to carry magical powers. Their materials and purposes can be as varied as the powers: Pomanders, Omamoris, dolls to protect from demons of fever, a piece of red wool, a blue eyed-glass bead, facial masks, leather pendants that contain herbs. These magical items have little scientific validity to ensure concrete prophylactic or apotropaic effects. Instead, they carry fabricated narratives and can trigger in us a sense of wonder. Concretely, these items signal some of the real challenges and fears individuals face.

“Super Charged—Hopes and Protections on the Body” developed from ZADAN educational project hosted by Jewellery Art at HDK-Valand. The title ‘ZADAN’(座談) references the Japanese concept of a conversation among peers. The aim of ZADAN is to create a common platform where we broaden our shared understanding of jewellery art across BA and MA programs and the broader community.

This project was spontaneously called into life among faculty members in March 2020, when Covid-19 unexpectedly stopped our access to the workshop. While home-bound with limited communication over ZOOM, we wanted to find ways to strengthen our Jewellery Art community. In the first year, (Winter 2020 – Summer 2020) international jewellery artists joined our meetings to give online artist talks. In the second year, (Winter 2021 – Summer 2021) with funding through Göteborgs Slöjdförening under the title “Wearers’ Perspective”, we invited seven lectures by jewellery artists and craft art historians. In the third series, “Hopes and Protections on the Body” (Winter 2022 – Summer 2022), we hosted six online lectures to investigate magical dimensions of jewellery from an artist, curator, sociologist, archeologist, and anthropologist. The results of our discussions and engagements with the subject will be viewed in the exhibition “Super Charged—Hopes and Protections on the Body”.

Anna Tegeström Wolgers
Professor of Craft, Textile Art

Anna T. Wolgers works across multiple disciplines in arts and craft. For the last 15 years Anna has worked mainly in the textile field exploring the semiotics of textiles and their narrative values. Textile materials, tactile and visual recognition are elements that Wolgers works with.

Wolgers has participated in numerous international and national exhibitions including public commissions and collaborative works with museums, where she has curated projects/exhibitions. Wolgers is chairwoman of the textile network Fiber Art Sweden

Email:

www.fiberartsweden.nu
www.annatw.se
www.kasiden.se

Dr. Jessica Hemmings Professor of Craft Vice-Prefekt of Research Jessica Hemmings writes about textiles. She studied Textile Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA (Honors) in 1999 and Comparative Literature (Africa/Asia) at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, earning an MA (Distinction) in 2000. Her PhD, awarded by the University of Edinburgh in 2006, is published by kalliope paperbacks under the title Yvonne Vera: the Voice of Cloth (2008). In 2010 she edited a collection of essays titled In the Loop: Knitting Now published by Black Dog and in 2012 edited The Textile Reader (Bloomsbury) and wrote Warp & Weft (Bloomsbury). Her editorial and curatorial project, Cultural Threads, is a book about postcolonial thinking and contemporary textile practice (Bloomsbury: 2015) accompanied by a travelling exhibition Migrations (2015-2017). Jessica is a member of the Editorial Board of Textile: the journal of cloth & culture (Taylor & Francis) and Craft Research (Intellect). She is currently Professor of Craft & Vice-Prefekt of Research at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and the 2020-2021 Rita Bolland Fellow at the Research Centre for Material Culture, the Netherlands. Email:

www.jesicahemmings.com

Yuka Oyama PhD
Professor of Craft, Jewellery Art

Yuka Oyama is a Japanese-German artist who grew up in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, USA and Germany. Oyama’s artistic practice incorporates sculpture, jewellery, video, photography, public interventions, choreographic experimentations and performances.

Her life-sized, wearable sculptures, object-human hybrids – objectified humans and personified objects – display disconnections often felt in contemporary life: the degeneration of human-to-human emotional communication and our sense of belonging. Oyama employs everyday objects to upset these disconnections, facilitating our ability to act beyond set conventions.

Oyama was one of the core members of the artistic research, Critical Costume 2000 -Costume Agency (2020) based at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, where she acted as the curator and the creative director. Oyama’s research considers critical adornments, material culture, and identity.

Email:

www.yukaoyama.com
www.costumeagency.com

Katarina Andersson Photo_ Karin Björkquist

Katarina Andersson
Senior Lecturer and Programme Director MA Craft

Katarina Andersson is a senior lecturer and since 2016 is the programme director for MA Craft. She is an artist and designer and her work extend between sculptural objects and tableware. Ceramics and glass are her main materials. Her work involves both semiotics, the relation between materials, objects in relation to space and objects as mediators.

Katarina Andersson has worked as a curator and project leader for various craft projects. She was previously senior lecturer at Konstfack at the Ceramic and Glass department, where she led the pilot project in artistic research Keramiska väggmaterial i offentlig miljö.

Email:

The Zadan Project

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