Dispatch from the Colonies by Geraldine Fenn

Artist list

Geraldine Fenn

Her approach draws inspiration from European cabinets of curiosities, whose logic she reverses: rather than displaying the colonized, she transforms the colonizers themselves into exotic objects placed under glass. This idea unfolds across four series — jewelry adorned with royal portraits and African trade beads, portraits of aristocrats displaced into a hostile African setting, playing cards depicting miniaturized colonists, and hybrid objects blending European and African materials. A collaborative project with the Zimbabwean beading collective Marigold completes the whole.

The artist aims for a nuanced reading of colonial history, beyond a simple perpetrator/victim dynamic, contributing in her own way to the reinterpretation of official narratives that still shape our understanding of colonialism. 

Geraldine Fenn is the first recipient of the Art Jewelry Forum Solo Exhibition Award, a grant established by collector Linda Peshkin to support the creation of a solo exhibition and promote the work of an artist working in the field of contemporary jewelry. 


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