Lisa Walker (b. 1967, New Zealand)
Pendant, 2017

A piece of… jewellery that technically is wearable, but most impractical at that. So maybe more of a sculpture? Yet presented in a jewellery exhibition and drawing on jewellery discourse that is full of references to status and identity markers, material hierarchies etc.

Honestly, I don’t really know what to make out of it, but it made me smile. And it could certainly serve as conversation piece if there was anyone to converse with.

This is a good example of breach or subversion of categories that forces one to work hard going through various qualities that have weight in our classification systems. I am often aiming to trigger the same process, hoping that it would lead to increased awareness about dynamic and arbitrary nature of our categories and concepts that we tend to perceive as fixed and static. And stronger awareness – and hopefully embrace of – the flux may perhaps even help to develop new thinking patterns that are better aligned with the world in constant change.