2022 VONMO 3rd Purifying the Soul. Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition in Beijing
Published: 04.05.2023
Departing from the paradise of Qinghai, the souls will respond for six days in Beijing. The artists have never been closer to the audience. Breaking the separation and alienation of space, the souls whisper with the audience. Such romance, accompanied by the silvery notes of the little bells with the closing of the exhibition, ends its "long conversation" and mutes the bells.
中文版 - Chinese version 
At the opening ceremony at 15:00 on Feb. 22, we played the Qinghai performance art film and behind-the-scenes footage before the curator introduced the project process of the third exhibition and announced the theme of the fourth exhibition; Finally, four prominent guests made a speech respectively, in an exciting or choking voice, touching the audience in the room.
Speech by curator Felicia Li:
The last time I stood here was at the opening ceremony of the second Intimate Relationships exhibition on Oct. 5, 2021, when I announced the theme of the third exhibition — Purifying the Soul. At that time, the participating artists were asked to extract a small part of their souls and make them into jewelry. After completing the first step — soul making, these souls were then screened by the panel of judges, and finally, I set out to carry these soul works to Qinghai for a Purifying ceremony. Only by completing such a whole process can the theme of purifying be fulfilled.
The form of this third exhibition is also my first attempt at two modes: no audience mode (Purifying the Soul ceremony in Qinghai ) and audience mode (offline tour back to the city). I've seen viewers commenting on social media, criticizing me for demeaning people and being disrespectful. Well, I think we are more often than not too respectful to people, so much so that we've ignored the souls of people, and that’s why people would go abusing animals, corrupting and endangering peace. Last but not least, I want to have our souls tested in such a way.
The Qinghai exhibition is not only an exhibition but also a performance art; it’s a performance completed jointly by artists and me as a curator. As of June 10th last year, I had received soul works from 220 artists from 38 countries worldwide. Through the one-month screening by our international panel of judges, 63 artists' works were selected for the Qinghai Purifying Ceremony. However, though we planned to hold the ceremony in Qinghai last Sept., the repeated Covid-19 epidemic in China put us all in the same predicament: the project was put on the agenda and revised again and again. It was given one rain check after another. All the uncertainties and risks were hanging over my head for half a year, which was quite a tempering for the artists’ souls, and for my own.
When all our emotions were drained, we finally got to Qinghai last Dec. 30 and held a three-day Purifying ceremony by Qinghai Lake, which is about 3,500 to 3,800 above sea level. We were very lucky that we were greeted by the first snow of the New Year, which covered the icy Qinghai Lake on New Year's Day, so I cleared a 50-meter long and 4-meter wide exhibition area (ice booth) on the icy Qinghai Lake, to display the soul works of 66 artists, which served as a passage of souls. And now (at the offline exhibition), the suspended white booth in the middle of the outside exhibition hall is an imitation of the (suspended) ice booth at that time; it is a passage of souls reduced in proportion (about one third of the size) of the Qinghai ice booth. The Purifying ceremony is divided into four movements: sprinkling paper around the souls, wearing the artists' souls and ringing the bells; walking while carrying the artists' souls, and lying on the ice with souls on my body, feeling the heartbeat of the lake. (Throughout the whole process, the voices of the artists were constantly played so that their voices echoed over Qinghai Lake for three days.) On the New Year's Day, we got to the lake at six in the morning, and I stayed with these souls on the ice for solid 12 hours without food or drink (the environment in the wild was too risky for me to leave these works), in which process I lied on the ice for half an hour without moving a muscle, and walked about 500 or 600 meters towards the centre of the lake several times, which resulted in hypothermia and severe altitude sickness later... Many times, I had a fear of life and death, and the real scene was not as good and romantic as shown in the photos and videos. I remained highly nervous about the works, for fear of any mistakes, and I even think that I infused more emotions into these "souls" than the authors did. During the whole process, I had been reflecting on where the souls would go after Purifying, whether they would be reborn or perish, but I believed that art could make an artist's soul go for eternity......
Now, we have returned to Beijing to hold an offline exhibition, where the audience can see what the 66 soul works are like after being purified and what changes have taken place. Furthermore, I have invited 46 works from the unselected ones to join the exhibition. I hung six bells in the air on the exhibition site, just as the name of the offline exhibition implies — The Soul Is Responding. The audience would ring these bells, whether intentionally or not, and the tinkling sound was also the audience's dialogue with the souls. In the end, I made these bells with traces of dialogue into an exhibition certificate for each artist, and everything is a natural and meaningful act.
Finally, I would like to thank all the artists and visitors for your attention and support of the exhibition project! My gratitude also goes to the friends who accompanied us to Qinghai for film shooting, the workers who worked hard to build structures for the offline exhibition and the volunteers who were on site for seven days!
Speech by curator Felicia Li:
The last time I stood here was at the opening ceremony of the second Intimate Relationships exhibition on Oct. 5, 2021, when I announced the theme of the third exhibition — Purifying the Soul. At that time, the participating artists were asked to extract a small part of their souls and make them into jewelry. After completing the first step — soul making, these souls were then screened by the panel of judges, and finally, I set out to carry these soul works to Qinghai for a Purifying ceremony. Only by completing such a whole process can the theme of purifying be fulfilled.
The form of this third exhibition is also my first attempt at two modes: no audience mode (Purifying the Soul ceremony in Qinghai ) and audience mode (offline tour back to the city). I've seen viewers commenting on social media, criticizing me for demeaning people and being disrespectful. Well, I think we are more often than not too respectful to people, so much so that we've ignored the souls of people, and that’s why people would go abusing animals, corrupting and endangering peace. Last but not least, I want to have our souls tested in such a way.
The Qinghai exhibition is not only an exhibition but also a performance art; it’s a performance completed jointly by artists and me as a curator. As of June 10th last year, I had received soul works from 220 artists from 38 countries worldwide. Through the one-month screening by our international panel of judges, 63 artists' works were selected for the Qinghai Purifying Ceremony. However, though we planned to hold the ceremony in Qinghai last Sept., the repeated Covid-19 epidemic in China put us all in the same predicament: the project was put on the agenda and revised again and again. It was given one rain check after another. All the uncertainties and risks were hanging over my head for half a year, which was quite a tempering for the artists’ souls, and for my own.
When all our emotions were drained, we finally got to Qinghai last Dec. 30 and held a three-day Purifying ceremony by Qinghai Lake, which is about 3,500 to 3,800 above sea level. We were very lucky that we were greeted by the first snow of the New Year, which covered the icy Qinghai Lake on New Year's Day, so I cleared a 50-meter long and 4-meter wide exhibition area (ice booth) on the icy Qinghai Lake, to display the soul works of 66 artists, which served as a passage of souls. And now (at the offline exhibition), the suspended white booth in the middle of the outside exhibition hall is an imitation of the (suspended) ice booth at that time; it is a passage of souls reduced in proportion (about one third of the size) of the Qinghai ice booth. The Purifying ceremony is divided into four movements: sprinkling paper around the souls, wearing the artists' souls and ringing the bells; walking while carrying the artists' souls, and lying on the ice with souls on my body, feeling the heartbeat of the lake. (Throughout the whole process, the voices of the artists were constantly played so that their voices echoed over Qinghai Lake for three days.) On the New Year's Day, we got to the lake at six in the morning, and I stayed with these souls on the ice for solid 12 hours without food or drink (the environment in the wild was too risky for me to leave these works), in which process I lied on the ice for half an hour without moving a muscle, and walked about 500 or 600 meters towards the centre of the lake several times, which resulted in hypothermia and severe altitude sickness later... Many times, I had a fear of life and death, and the real scene was not as good and romantic as shown in the photos and videos. I remained highly nervous about the works, for fear of any mistakes, and I even think that I infused more emotions into these "souls" than the authors did. During the whole process, I had been reflecting on where the souls would go after Purifying, whether they would be reborn or perish, but I believed that art could make an artist's soul go for eternity......
Now, we have returned to Beijing to hold an offline exhibition, where the audience can see what the 66 soul works are like after being purified and what changes have taken place. Furthermore, I have invited 46 works from the unselected ones to join the exhibition. I hung six bells in the air on the exhibition site, just as the name of the offline exhibition implies — The Soul Is Responding. The audience would ring these bells, whether intentionally or not, and the tinkling sound was also the audience's dialogue with the souls. In the end, I made these bells with traces of dialogue into an exhibition certificate for each artist, and everything is a natural and meaningful act.
Finally, I would like to thank all the artists and visitors for your attention and support of the exhibition project! My gratitude also goes to the friends who accompanied us to Qinghai for film shooting, the workers who worked hard to build structures for the offline exhibition and the volunteers who were on site for seven days!
About the author
Felicia Li is a contemporary art jewelry designer and curator. She is the committee member of Gems and Jewelry Trade Association of China. In 2016, she formally established the Vonmo studio and keeps exploring the innovation direction to integrate contemporary art jewelry design and traditional Chinese crafts.
2022 VONMO 3rd “Purifying the Soul” Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition-Qinghai
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
2022 VONMO 3rd “Purifying the Soul” Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition-exhibition construction
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
2022 VONMO 3rd “Purifying the Soul” Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition-Beijing
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Forum Shortcuts
-
Every color has its stories... including RED*
23May2023 -
2022 VONMO 3rd Purifying the Soul. Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition in Beijing
04May2023 -
Web3's Rise within Contemporary Design
28Apr2023 -
The Pearl. Its Representations Through Time
20Apr2023 -
The Pearl. The Origins of the Myth
13Apr2023 -
The Pearl Necklace. Not just a range of beads
12Apr2023 -
Melting Pot. A New Online Magazine by Qompendium in collaboration with Pforzheim Jewellery Museum
22Mar2023 -
Schmuck Greenhouses. A Munich Jewellery Week Review 2023
15Mar2023 -
What is it worth? A proposal for a conversation on Contemporary Jewellery and the Market
14Mar2023 -
The Cultural Council of Contemporania High Craftsmanship Barcelona
10Mar2023 -
Anti-Capitalism Rejected
09Mar2023 -
30 Selected Artists at LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2023
28Feb2023 -
Contemporania, the New High Craftsmanship in the City of Barcelona
21Feb2023 -
Paradoxical Phenomena in Contemporary Jewelry. A review of Budapest Jewelry Week 2022
20Feb2023 -
The story of Naqsha Navees by Qurat-ul-ain Ali
17Feb2023
