Chidimma Omeke, Hochschule Trier. New Talents Award Nominee 2025
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Published: 26.12.2025
The 11th edition of the New Talent Award 2025 by Klimt02 aims to recognize the work of graduate students in our field by supporting their careers in the professional world. Nominated by our school members, one of the selected graduates will win the New Talents Award.
By considering jewellery as a wearable mask, this thesis explores how adornment can serve as a bridge between the physical and the immaterial, allowing the wearer to exist in a continuous state of metamorphosis.
>> Check out all the 2025 New Talents Nominees
Name of graduation student: Chidimma Omeke
Name of guiding teacher: Theo Smeets.
Nominated by Hochschule Trier.
This thesis unfolds the mask as a living force—one that shapes, loosens, and remakes identity over time. Rather than treating the mask as a fixed form, it is understood as part of a continual movement between the unseen and the tangible. This approach reflects a sensitive engagement with theory and culture, allowing identity to emerge as something fluid and relational. The study of the Adamma masquerade of Nsukka grounds this exploration, revealing identity as a shared performance shaped by the exchange between body, material, and witness.
The work moves gracefully from masquerade into the realm of contemporary jewellery, where adornment becomes an intimate extension of the mask. Jewellery is presented not as ornament alone, but as a quiet site of daily transformation. Through the Queen Idia pendant mask, the thesis weaves together history and the present, showing how jewellery can carry memory while allowing identity to shift freely across time and space.
A defining strength of the work lies in its use of gemstones, which are treated as vessels of meaning rather than embellishment. Their weight, endurance, and sensory presence allow them to mediate between the physical body and the invisible self they help to express. Through these materials, the jewellery speaks of ritual, value,
transformation, and continuity, while also honoring the symbolic and sustainable choices embedded in their use.
Taken as a whole, this thesis is marked by depth, originality, and a thoughtful blending of theory, cultural research, and making. It offers a meaningful contribution to contemporary jewellery discourse, inviting us to see adornment not as surface, but as a powerful space where identity is negotiated, embodied, and continually becoming.
/ Prof. Theo Smeets
Artist statement:
Mask - The Contextual Cry
Mask is more than an object; it is a symbol of an immaterial identity, existing beyond the physical. This identity marks both the beginning and conclusion of a continuous transformational process, unfolding through a cyclical progression: Immaterial Mask (Identity) > Medium > Representational Mask > Embodiment & Modification > Facial Mask > Response > Immaterial Mask (Identity). This thesis explores this cycle as a conceptual framework for understanding the sustainable transformation of masks, where identity is not static but fluid and ever-evolving.
This discussion begins by examining the Adamma masquerade of Nsukka, South-Eastern Nigeria, which reveals the essential elements involved in the formation of identity. Three key components contribute to this process: the masker, who undergoes an internal and external transformation in preparation for the role; the materials, which not only define the mask’s aesthetic but also establish a connection between the mask and its cultural context; and the spectator, who serves as the final evaluator of the mask’s distinct identity. It is only through the synthesis of these elements that transformation is realized, and the mask’s presence is fully established.
Building upon this discourse, the thesis redefines jewellery as an extension of the mask, exploring wearable art and its transformative impact as representational masks. While masks traditionally exist within ceremonial, theatrical, and ritualistic contexts, jewellery introduces the potential for a more personal engagement with transformation. The study of the Queen Idia pendant mask serves as a critical point of discussion, revealing how jewellery can function as a vessel for accessing the transformational attributes of the mask in contemporary society. Unlike masks, which are often bound by limitations of time and space, jewellery offers a more fluid and accessible means of engaging with shifting identities.
This discussion challenges conventional definitions of adornment, positioning both masks and jewellery as tools for mediating identity transformation and self-expression. By considering jewellery as a wearable mask, this thesis explores how adornment can serve as a bridge between the physical and the immaterial, allowing the wearer to exist in a continuous state of metamorphosis. In a contemporary world constrained by time, space, and rigid social structures, jewellery, like the mask, allows its wearer the ability to defy these boundaries and better express unique identities.
/ Chidimma Omeke, Idar-Oberstein 2025.
Contact:
Mail: chidimma.c.omeke@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/chidimma_omeke
Website: https://cornelstan4gb.wixsite.com/gallery
Find out more about Hochschule Trier.
Name of guiding teacher: Theo Smeets.
Nominated by Hochschule Trier.
This thesis unfolds the mask as a living force—one that shapes, loosens, and remakes identity over time. Rather than treating the mask as a fixed form, it is understood as part of a continual movement between the unseen and the tangible. This approach reflects a sensitive engagement with theory and culture, allowing identity to emerge as something fluid and relational. The study of the Adamma masquerade of Nsukka grounds this exploration, revealing identity as a shared performance shaped by the exchange between body, material, and witness.
The work moves gracefully from masquerade into the realm of contemporary jewellery, where adornment becomes an intimate extension of the mask. Jewellery is presented not as ornament alone, but as a quiet site of daily transformation. Through the Queen Idia pendant mask, the thesis weaves together history and the present, showing how jewellery can carry memory while allowing identity to shift freely across time and space.
A defining strength of the work lies in its use of gemstones, which are treated as vessels of meaning rather than embellishment. Their weight, endurance, and sensory presence allow them to mediate between the physical body and the invisible self they help to express. Through these materials, the jewellery speaks of ritual, value,
transformation, and continuity, while also honoring the symbolic and sustainable choices embedded in their use.
Taken as a whole, this thesis is marked by depth, originality, and a thoughtful blending of theory, cultural research, and making. It offers a meaningful contribution to contemporary jewellery discourse, inviting us to see adornment not as surface, but as a powerful space where identity is negotiated, embodied, and continually becoming.
/ Prof. Theo Smeets
Artist statement:
Mask - The Contextual Cry
Mask is more than an object; it is a symbol of an immaterial identity, existing beyond the physical. This identity marks both the beginning and conclusion of a continuous transformational process, unfolding through a cyclical progression: Immaterial Mask (Identity) > Medium > Representational Mask > Embodiment & Modification > Facial Mask > Response > Immaterial Mask (Identity). This thesis explores this cycle as a conceptual framework for understanding the sustainable transformation of masks, where identity is not static but fluid and ever-evolving.
This discussion begins by examining the Adamma masquerade of Nsukka, South-Eastern Nigeria, which reveals the essential elements involved in the formation of identity. Three key components contribute to this process: the masker, who undergoes an internal and external transformation in preparation for the role; the materials, which not only define the mask’s aesthetic but also establish a connection between the mask and its cultural context; and the spectator, who serves as the final evaluator of the mask’s distinct identity. It is only through the synthesis of these elements that transformation is realized, and the mask’s presence is fully established.
Building upon this discourse, the thesis redefines jewellery as an extension of the mask, exploring wearable art and its transformative impact as representational masks. While masks traditionally exist within ceremonial, theatrical, and ritualistic contexts, jewellery introduces the potential for a more personal engagement with transformation. The study of the Queen Idia pendant mask serves as a critical point of discussion, revealing how jewellery can function as a vessel for accessing the transformational attributes of the mask in contemporary society. Unlike masks, which are often bound by limitations of time and space, jewellery offers a more fluid and accessible means of engaging with shifting identities.
This discussion challenges conventional definitions of adornment, positioning both masks and jewellery as tools for mediating identity transformation and self-expression. By considering jewellery as a wearable mask, this thesis explores how adornment can serve as a bridge between the physical and the immaterial, allowing the wearer to exist in a continuous state of metamorphosis. In a contemporary world constrained by time, space, and rigid social structures, jewellery, like the mask, allows its wearer the ability to defy these boundaries and better express unique identities.
/ Chidimma Omeke, Idar-Oberstein 2025.
Contact:
Mail: chidimma.c.omeke@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/chidimma_omeke
Website: https://cornelstan4gb.wixsite.com/gallery
Find out more about Hochschule Trier.
Brooch: Entrance, 2025
Gold, tourmaline, ebony, leather
8.5 x 10 x 4 cm
Photo by: Chidimma Omeke
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 5200 €
Sculpture: Come Up Hither, Mantle, 2025
Wood, paint, resin
56 x 48 x 33 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck, Chidimma Omeke
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Ring: Ofor, 2025
Synthetic ruby, ebony, leather, silver
7.6 x 4 x 6 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 1600 €
Necklace: Lamp, 2025
Quartz, ebony, fabric
8 x 3 x 4.5 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck, Chidimma Omeke
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 3200 €
Sculpture: Come Up Hither, Will, 2025
Agate, wood, resin
60 x 41 x 26 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 7800 €
Ring: Doxa, 2025
Gem, Resin
7 x 4 x 5.5 cm
Photo by: Chidimma Omeke
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 5000 €
Necklace: Light 1. Weapon, 2025
Quartz crystal, ebony wood, fabric
50 x 35 x 6 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 1500 €
Necklace: Light 2. Weapon, 2025
Leather, ebony, resin
50 x 35 x 6 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 1500 €
Brooch: Materiality, 2025
Leather, ebony, gold, resin
11 x 4 x 6 cm
Photo by: Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 1800 €
Sculpture: Come Up Hither, I Am, 2025
Agate, ebony, resin
49 x 23 x 25 cm
Photo by: Chidimma Omeke, Cornelia Wruck
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Estimated price: 6000 €
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