KINGS & PAWNS

Institutional Overview

(for curators, galleries, and institutions)

Curatorial Summary – Chapter I

KINGS & Pawns is a closed chapter of applied art jewellery conceived as an analytical observation of power and its effects on the individual. Rather than approaching authority as a symbol, narrative, or aspiration, the chapter examines power as a condition — one that exerts pressure, assigns position, and reshapes perception through sustained exposure.

Comprising eight unique sculptural objects, Kings & Pawns operates through diagnosis rather than representation. Each piece embodies a distinct psychological and structural state produced by proximity to power, particularly in those who desire it without possessing the internal architecture to sustain it. In this context, hierarchy is not framed as victory or failure, but as a system that extracts cost, leaves residue, and alters the body’s relationship to itself.

The objects are constructed using mechanical fragments, organic inclusions, and materially asymmetric compositions. Watch mechanisms, metal structures, stones, and fragile elements coexist in deliberate tension, emphasising duration, imbalance, and internal strain. These materials are not employed decoratively; they function as structural agents, exposing the mechanics of control, repetition, and inevitability embedded within systems of authority.

Each work presents a dual condition: a visible face and a concealed reverse. This duality reflects the divergence between public role and internal consequence — between position occupied and condition endured. The jewellery does not adorn the body; it engages it. Form is not worn as ornament, but sustained as presence.

As a chapter, Kings & Pawns resists stylistic closure and narrative resolution. It does not propose redemption, mastery, or transformation. Instead, it articulates a sequence of states — diagnostic rather than expressive — through which power passes and leaves its mark. The chapter functions as a foundational inquiry within the artist’s broader practice, establishing power not as possession, but as exposure: a force that reveals structure by deforming it.