Jingyan Zhu - China
Jingyan Zhu
Designer biography:
Extensive research and hands-on experience in art and craftsmanship have shaped Jingyan’s deep interest in jewelry. She completed her undergraduate studies in China before pursuing a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in the UK. With over five years of experience in jewelry design, her early work focused on gemology and jewelry appraisal, while her current interests lie in exploring the intersections between jewelry, sociology, philosophy, and poetry. In her work, Jingyan seeks to create opportunities for wearers to engage in quiet self-reflection and reconsider their relationship with the world from new perspectives. With a strong sense of empathy, she explores the subtle connections between human consciousness and objects. She is particularly drawn to interactive and dynamic body-responsive installations, believing that engaging with moving objects can expand the wearer’s perception and self-awareness, fostering a deeper understanding of personal existence. Passionate about material experimentation,Jingyan explores the unique physical properties and cultural symbolism of various materials. Through a refined jewelry language, she aims to articulate these qualities in her work, allowing them to resonate with the viewer in meaningful ways. Her work was selected for the VONMO 5th Contemporary Jewelry Art Exhibition (2026) “SEEDING”.
Collection concept:
The project "Standard Answer" originates from contemplations on the competitive education system in China. Within this educational framework, I've observed a sense of fragmentation and prepackaging in the knowledge acquired as students, highlighting a disconnect between what we learn and the actual facts. These reflections propel the project into its subsequent creative phases. Jewelry, serving as a symbol of personal taste, becomes a medium for expressing one's identity. In this project, audience participation is essential, involving the cutting and assembling of a jewelry set following an instruction manual. Upon completing this set of assembled jewelry, participants, even if not fully proficient in all jewelry crafting techniques, can still acquire a standardized "jewelry." This standardized production process prompts consideration: Could it also function as a mechanism for social conditioning on an individual level? There is the assembly process of brooches and rings. In the actual production of the project, there were some technical challenges, such as discrepancies during laser cutting, leading to inaccuracies in engraving certain patterns at the correct positions. Additionally, there were cutting errors among multiple assembled parts, making it challenging at times to achieve a perfect fit. I learned the importance of allowing for adjustments during mechanical operations and fine-tuning manually to achieve optimal results. Moving forward, I will continue to improve these details and explore further possibilities for my work.
