Qian Wang, Artist in Residence at Le Arti Orafe 2018

From April to June, Qiana has worked on her new project, that will end with her personal exhibition that will take place on June 28th in a suggestive marbles gallery, next to the spaces of the School.
During this journey she experienced Italian culture: with LAO, she had the opportunity to visit Vicenza's Jewellery Museum, Naples and the Royal Palace of Caserta, and the coral laboratories of Torre del Greco.
From the jewels made of acrylic, for which had been awarded for Preziosa Young, Qiana has turned her interest to a new and different material: pasta.


Brooch: Untitled, 2018; Italian pasta with natural added pigments.; Photo by: Qian Wang; From series: I’m not cooking pasta, I’m doing jewellery.


Pasta, with all kinds of its shapes, has captured my attention. Actually, I don't like cooking very much, despite this is a traditionally female activity... So I hope to use a critical way to explain my intentions, that is reshape, redefine the activity of cooking.

Thinking about what binds the woman to cultural definitions, she reflects also on craftsmanship, connected to the female. She patiently weaving spaghetti, using symbols that refer to women's world, such as the form of the nest, that translates the position of woman in the family.
But Qian manages to exalt the qualities of the female world as a whole. She says: I celebrate the woman in all her shapes. In fact, there is no aggressiveness, shouted protest, in Qiana's jewellery: her pieces are charged with a female sensibility.
As a great artisan, she experiments with the elasticity of pasta and with the possible combinations of spaghetti, cooked and intertwined as fabric. She colours pasta diving it in a mix of dye powder and pure pigment, playing with the soft chromaticism that changes from one hue to another one with great delicacy. Then she applies the resin, covered food with plastic.
So she chooses the pasta and, it is true, she cooks it, but to transform it into bright jewels coated by acrylic, that denies their edibility and present them as colorful and elegant brooches.
 

Brooch: Untitled, 2018; Italian pasta with natural added pigments.; Photo by: Qian Wang; From series: I’m not cooking pasta, I’m doing jewellery.


Hello everyone, I'm Qiana Wang and I come from China.
It's an honour for me to be the winner of Preziosa Young 2017, which conferred me the special prize of resident artist in LAO, one of the most prestigious schools of contemporary jewellery in Europe.  
I've been in Florence for three months, from April to June, to work on my new project that is ended with my personal exhibition in a marbles gallery, near the spaces of the School.
I've been guest in a warm Florentine family in which I saw how an Italian family lives and I learnt to cook pasta in a native way, which is the main theme of my project.
People in LAO are warm and friendly, they've always taken care of me and helped me to approach my works. They are professional and gentle, especially Giò Carbone, the founder of LAO, a really good goldsmith and artist, who has followed my project and discussed it when I was in trouble. As well as, teachers have guided me to chemical techniques, gave me the opportunity to improve my knowledge as a goldsmith.
 
I worked with symbols that are referred to woman's world to transform them into something different, jewels, that is what I love to do. I celebrate the woman in all her shapes, so I used the form of the nest to translate the position of women in the family, and the activity of weaving, to refer to craftsmanship tradition, that is about women".
 
IN THE LAB:
There is a complete goldsmith's equipment in LAO laboratories, so it has been possible for me to realize my pieces. The lab is very quiet, so I worked in total concentration and peace.
I used pasta and I experimented with different kinds of shapes. After having coloured with dye powder and pigment, I apply the resin to make my jewels stronger and brilliant. Pasta is a material with several qualities: it's easy to re-shape and to weaving when it's boiled.
I'm very curious about the different materials that can be used in contemporary jewellery, such acrylic, which my winner jewels were made of. About this, I held a workshop for the LAO students on the practices of plastic materials.
 
So I am very glad for this opportunity. Thanks to LAO who gave me this incredible experience! 
/ Qiana

About the Interviewee

Qian Wang is a maker of jewellery artist born in a metalsmith Chinese family, Qiana participated to the PREZIOSA YOUNG 2017 competition and was the artist awarded by LAO with a free three-month stay as an artist in residence in Florence.

About the author

LAO - Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School, Florence, an educational project. Established in 1985 by Giò Carbone, LAO was the first Italian school devoted to the study of jewellery culture, and to the contemporary practice in jewellery creation, and since the very beginning has encouraged and promoted a learning process emphasizing technical and professional skills, combined with artistic research and contemporary design. Since 1985 LAO have its headquarters in the very heart of Florence, in the Santo Spirito/San Frediano historic and artistic district, which still retains its own character and offers visitors and residents an intense human experience. The school have 5 beautiful and full equipped workshops, and 5 classrooms for design, CAD, gemmology and theoretical lessons. A very rich library had been set up along the year, with a huge number of books and catalogues on jewellery and applied arts.