After giving previews for five months, contemporary jewelry artist, Wallace Chan, unveiled a complete collection of 14 high jewels made with his new unbreakable porcelain on November 27 in New York.
The collection represents both a personal journey and universal themes. To underscore these points, the Hong Kong-based jeweler opened the event by narrating a 10-minute video that described his impoverished childhood and how it both shaped his views as an artist and led him to create a new type of porcelain.
He began his presentation by saying, “I had nothing and I knew it. At five years old I knew what it felt to have nothing…. What we have, what we make are never just things. We call them belongings because they belong to us and also because they give us something: a sense of home, a sense of self, a sense of belonging.”
He said that while he and his siblings shared a plastic spoon for eating their soup, the adults shared a porcelain spoon. A spoon he became curious, even obsessed with. One day he reached for the porcelain spoon and it slipped from his hand and broke. It was this experience led Chan as an adult to spend seven years creating porcelain that he says has five times the strength of steel, which he named “The Wallace Chan Porcelain.”
(You can read more about Chan’s story by following this link.)
After the presentation he unveiled his 14 jewels in display cases. The porcelain used in the jewels not only has the pure while color associated with the material, but there are examples that glow in a vibrant, even fluorescent-like pink and blue. The porcelain is matched with large colorful gemstones, diamond pave and titanium, his metal of choice for the past 10 years. Each piece is unique in approach and style, ranging from dome shapes to pieces with long, sensual curves.
While his childhood experience was the inspiration, he said after the presentation he also saw the material as a way to achieve his ideas.
“Porcelain has the potential to be innovative, to become the carrier of my ideas,” he said. “I did not dare to use traditional porcelain because it would break if you set an important stone with it so that’s why I wanted to create innovative porcelain to meet my needs to create major jewelry pieces. “
Those familiar with Chan’s creations will see that while the material may be innovative, his designs are typical Wallace Chan, which means they are not typical at all. However, the combinations of designs, colors and themes are recognizable as Chan’s works. The following day when I asked about this he said his style is who he is and while it goes through progressions it retains a similarity. He compares it to aging. While the person undergoes physical changes throughout one’s life, he or she is still recognizable as the same person.
Chan first came to the U.S. in June to show a few of his completed porcelain pieces to academics. Over the next few months provided images of a few of his finished pieces for select journalists. He chose New York to unveil the collection because he says that Americans react emotionally to his pieces.
The unveiling served as a preview for an upcoming retrospective of Chan’s works January 14 – 18, 2019, at Christie’s Hong Kong. The solo exhibition titled, “Shapeshifter: The Multiverse of Wallace Chan,” will include more than 80 creations that explore Chan’s culture, craftsmanship and creativity—many of which have not yet been seen. The exhibition will present contemporary sculptures, wearable works of art and pieces composed of the artist’s innovations over the past 45 years—including The Wallace Cut, titanium mastery, patented jade technology, Gemstone-Setting-Gemstone Technique, Secret Abyss and now, The Wallace Chan Porcelain.
