Brace Yourself
Brace Yourself
[set of earrings, choker, brooch, & bracelet]
2021
Pearls, steel, NiTi Thermal wire, elastomeric bands
Brace Yourself is a series of work inspired by my experience wearing dental braces and devices throughout my adolescent years, from age 10 to 17.
With a severe diastema and overbite, I was privileged to have parents that could financially support the years of dental work it would take to straighten my pearly whites.
Time spent at the orthodontist was in tandem with my transition between childhood and adulthood, when smiling in itself became an act of defiance against the growing pains I was experiencing.
Although my braces were eventually removed just before my senior year of high school, the stain of perfectionism they left on my personality never fully came out.
This body of work was made in response to a Fall 2020 curatorial project with JV Collective: In-School Suspension. This time around, members of JV Collective dredged up their own feelings of nostalgia and angst for a time in life that is often messy and transformative: High School.
Each member reflected on those formative years and the items that once adorned their bodies. This series of work, Homeroom, is a snapshot of adolescence and made its virtual debut during Munich Jewellery Week 2021.
https://www.jv-collective.com/homeroom
