CAMEO IS AN ONGOING SERIES FEATURING CANADIAN JEWELLERY ARTISTS. HERE, THEY SHARE THEIR LATEST THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS, AND GIVE US A PEEK INTO THEIR PRACTICE.
Describe your current work/practice in one sentence.
I guess the best way I would attempt to describe my practice is as a hybridized material exploration of object and tool-making; I make sculptural, functional and wearable work about exploring the embodied experiences of queer and trans identities (usually out of ceramics and metal, but not exclusively).
What are three things/ideas that inspire you?
Making tools I really love making tools for myself and others, especially when it can help serve a specific need, or challenge my brain to come up with a creative solution. Tools are an extension of our hands and minds, so creating my own gives me a greater sense of agency in my making practice.
Teaching/Learning For the past 6 years I’ve worked as a ceramics instructor, teaching kids and adults of all ages and abilities. I’m endlessly fascinated with how people learn and come into their own creativity. Everyone has the capacity to be creative in their own way, and I see my role as a ‘teacher’ to be more like a facilitator, because I’m not the only one in the room with valuable expertise and knowledge. I’m constantly learning from my students and I strive as much as possible to create an environment that encourages them to learn collaboratively from themselves and each other.
Failure Probably the most essential part of my practice, and my biggest source of inspiration and learning.
What other things do you do besides your jewellery practice?
My jewellery practice is sort of a companion to my main practice, which is ceramics. When I’m not in-between the jewellery and ceramic studios at Harbourfront Centre, I work as a bicycle mechanic, and as a ceramics instructor at the Gardiner Museum.
I don’t have a singular favourite, but I recently made a cohesive body of conceptual wearable works that I’m excited to develop further. This was the first time I tried making a collection that synthesized both of my technical backgrounds in jewellery and ceramics, where previously in my work they had been more separate.
The collection is called Porous Binaries, and it’s about questioning how we socially organize our ideas around gender, sexuality, and human biology. Jewellery also plays a role in how we adorn, express and identify our bodies/experiences, and so much of it carries historical and cultural connotations that reinforce the idea that bodies are meant to follow a binary structure. I was interested in representing multidimensional trans and queer-embodied gender identities (like my own), and using unconventional materials to talk about the social, medical, and structural conditions/constructs that shape those expressions and perceptions.
What is a favourite piece that you’ve made and why?
Danica Drago
PB. 010010010104 and 010010010105 (2022)
Porcelain, coloured ceramic stain, nylon webbing, utility hardware
Photo by the artist
Danica Drago
Porous Binaries brooches, various (2022)
Porcelain, coloured ceramic stain, glaze, stainless steel, epoxy resin
Photo by the artist
Teeming (with ideas, activity and possibility).
What word pops into your mind when you think of Canadian art jewellery?
I’m in my last year of studio residency at Harbourfront Centre, and I’m excited to work more collaboratively with others in and outside of the studios. Currently, I’m trying to take some time to write a couple of project development grants, while also submitting some of my wearable work for exhibitions.
What is coming up next for you?
Published: 2022/08/20
