Faculty of Design

Material Art & Design

Kexin Wen

Integrated-Brain

My second wearable art piece portrays the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and how it protects the brain. A lateral-ventricle-shaped vacuum-formed copolymer plastic container with liquid inside is clipped to the head on both sides. These containers connect with the vinyl tubes that go down and join with the central sterling silver wire, which indicates the central spine. To continue the flow, two tubes come up on both sides, rejoining on top of the head. To show that the brain is surrounded by CSF, another water pattern is made in sterling silver to symbolize both the brain's form and the water (CSF) enveloping it.

“Integrated is a set of wearable art jewellery created in response to the question “What is the nature of jewellery.” Jewellery is a form of spiritual and artistic expression, a way of thinking and a method to provoke cognitive understandings. Integrated expresses my understanding of the relationship between jewellery and the body. In these pieces, I use the symbol of water to represent the pieces becoming one with the body as water becomes one with the body. With its purpose of drawing connections between the object and the wearer, I use the space around the body to construct my pieces; the body is included as a second component in my work. To explore the topic of how the human body values water, my research focuses on the water cycle within the human body, looking into how the heart, the brain, and the small intestine interact with water as a nutrient to stay healthy. I visually portray these interactions by depicting water both aesthetically and in the physical properties of my materials, as sculpting metal and plastic results in the material taking on fluid properties. In addition, I incorporated actual fluid into my pieces to further develop the integration of water connections between the materials, the wearable art jewellery and the body. ”