Jewellery offers an art form which provides a means of recording memory and experience in a portable and wearable form. Through this medium it is possible to express ideas, thoughts, and concerns, which may not be achievable in other ways. Twelve contemporary jewellery artists from the UK and Australia have been selected to create up to three pieces of work each, which will articulate the notion of “transplantation” in a tangible form.

Even jewellers whose work is not overtly illustrative often have a story to tell. In some cases participants’ existing reputations are already built on narrative and metaphor. Each artist in this exhibition has their own experience of cultural, familial and artistic transplantation of one sort or another.  Each has drawn on those experiences to create work which is powerful, engaging and thought-provoking and which, it is hoped will encourage viewers to reflect seriously on the topic and consider how it relates to themselves.

The exhibition features works by the following artists:
Jivan Astfalck, London
Norman Cherry, Lincoln
Jack Cunningham, Birmingham
Laura Potter, London
Lin Cheung, London
Jo Pond, Derby
Anna Davern, Melbourne
Rosanne Bartley, Melbourne
Joung-Mee Do, Sydney
Nick Bastin, Melbourne
Sheridan Kennedy, Sydney
Bridie Lander, Sydney/Birmingham

Curator Professor Norman Cherry, University of Lincoln, says: "We hope that each of you visiting this exhibition will be engaged, challenged and in your own way, delighted by the experience.  We hope that you will think about your own cultural sense of place and perhaps re-evaluate it.  We hope that you will come to think about jewellery in a different way too; not simply as something decorative to wear, but an eminently portable, wearable artform with its own stories, histories and metaphors."

Members of the Young Journalists Academy attended the private view - you can read their article by clicking on the link below:
http://www.youngjournalistacademy.co.uk/2012/03/transplantation-wearable-memories/#comment-52137