MOON LIGHT SEA SERIES
Gold Leaf, Japanese lacquer, Mother of Pearl, Sterling Silver and Stainless Steel

Highly Commended Award
Profile ‘17 - The 5th JMGA-NSW Biennial Curated Award Exhibition for Jewellery, Objects and Metalsmithing.
Gauge Gallery, 19 September to 1 October 2017

Selected Finalist
2018 National Contemporary Jewellery Award
Griffith Regional Art Gallery, 11 August to 23 September 2018

Selected Finalist
Contemporary Jewellery’19 Biennial Jewellery Awards and Exhibition
Toowoomba Regional Gallery, 7 September to 3 November 2019

About
The series of work tells the story of my Parent’s journey from Vietnam. They were both part of the 1978 exodus, Vietnamese boat people, who fled Vietnam in the 1970s after the Vietnam war. The Vietnamese Hoa (Chinese from Vietnam) people were unloaded onto uninhabited islands in Indonesia where I was born. The photographic arrangement of the works shows the ring higher up representing the moon and the two vessel-like brooches below represents my parents out at sea. Through this, a sense of hope, fear and courage is what I have tried to capture in the surface detailing. The series explores migration and diaspora through the visual language of the forms and materials. The peony is a motif I use as a metaphor to discuss my cultural personal experience relating to migration. The structural forms are made from reassembling the deconstruction of a peony flower cut from etched and printed silver. Through this process, the new structured forms create new visual identity layered with painted Japanese lacquer, shell and gold leaf. Referencing the image of waves in the sea, vessels, flora like forms and the earth’s moon.

In 2017, the work was highly commended as a Finalist in the Profile ‘17 JMGA-NSW Biennial Curated Award Exhibition.

In 2018, the work was selected as a Finalist in the 2018 National Contemporary Jewellery Award at Griffith Regional Art Gallery.

In 2019, the work was selected as a Finalist for the Contemporary Jewellery ‘19 Biennial Jewellery Awards and Exhibition at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.