Ali Vedad Yüner

Bio

Ali Vedad Yüner (he/him) is a Turkish-born jeweler and artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Charmed by the silvery facades of fish encountered on the Turkish coast, he found himself fascinated with metal. Along with a need for expression, and a dissatisfaction of design invoked through a brief stint in commercial jewelry, he ended up in RISD, graduating with an MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing. Maintaining an interest in aquatic life, he carves trees, bones, and biology into adornments of apotropaic power.

Statement

Unlike histories that are bent to authorities, jewelry is kept safe in museums, guilds, and artisans' minds. This security from false narratives enables jewelry to exist as an object of faith, allowing for an uninterrupted communication between the wearer and higher power. Within this context of faith into a larger existence, I am drawn to jewelry’s role in acknowledging the human’s minuteness compared to the Earth. I enjoy this feeling of littleness- the recognition that I am not above the earth, but within it. I desire to have an affirmation that I coexist with the world, being brought up in an ecologically-estranged urban sprawl. Fueled by this desire of extra-anthropological connection, I research the interaction of jewelry with the ecosphere, where the act of wearing jewelry can signify an appreciation of non-human ecology and invite engagement between the wearer and the other members of the ecological web. I collide this research with a heritage of geographical craft, creating endemic “beings” that come alive once worn.
 

CV      

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