Silver Society of Canada Metal Object Award

NSCAD metalsmithing STUDENT finalists’ exhibition
L.A. PAI GALLERY, ottawa, on
JUNE 4 — 24, 2022

By: Emma Piirtoniemi
Published: 2022/05/17

The Silver Society of Canada is a 24-year-old collective which includes collectors, dealers, auction house and museums personnel as its core membership. Their mission is to expand knowledge of antique and modern silver through publications, lectures, and visits of local silver collections. In recent years, they’ve sought to encourage the next generation of metalsmiths through an annual award given to institutions with specific programs offering silversmithing techniques. Through silversmith Anne Barros, they connected with NSCAD University and the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design (NBCCD), the only institutions regularly teaching metalsmithing techniques in Canada.

This year, Kye-Yeon Son, Professor of Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing at NSCAD University, thought to expand the award opportunity for NSCAD students to include having finalists’ work exhibited publicly. She teamed up with Lisa Pai at L. A. Pai Gallery and the result is an exhibition of approximately 15 pieces of hollowware, each expressing a unique narrative reflective of its maker. Son’s main goal was to show the work of her students in a larger creative market. After instructing Hollowware classes at NSCAD for many years, she deeply understands the value that comes from learning to work large in metal.

“I’m always amazed at the result of students’ work with basic silversmithing technique[s], they were able to create wonderful pieces. Through this project and the courses, I want students to have experience of what contemporary silversmithing is and develop their confidence in fabrication of larger pieces, and also how these pieces can be completed: concept-wise and development.”
—Kye-Yeon Son, Professor Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing, NSCAD University

Son hopes students understand the importance of developing their skills, including in the design process itself. They quickly learn what it takes to fabricate from concept to 3D object with metalsmithing skills. She says that once they experience this at NSCAD, it’s totally up to them to take it further. Rarely do students keep working in hollowware at the studio level.

The projects presented in Hollowware courses at NSCAD include making specific functional objects like candle holders, teapots, and other vessels. However, the design often reaches far beyond functionality. In this exhibition, it’s clear that students imbued these objects with rich storytelling— often biographical— and the result is remarkably vulnerable. They brave the complexities of life, loss, change, and challenges through these works that in one form or another, all come our way. To celebrate student achievement and make space for them to share their artistic voices is indeed a powerful way to encourage the next generation of metalsmiths. As Son hints, “This is my small effort in this small corner of Canada to keep a little flame of hollowware [alive] for students so when they leave, they keep this flame of interest. I just want them to have confidence [that] they can do it, and be proud of what they’ve done.”

Banner image:
Noore Saleh
Late Bloomer ladle (2022)
Brass
Image by the artist