It’s easy to see why Mengnan Qu’s vibrant jewellery designs are featured this month by the Ontario Craft Council. This recent grad of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design amalgamates traditional Chinese elements with contemporary metalsmithing. These pieces tell ancient stories. (Above: Borrow Tiger’s Fierceness)
Above: Thousand Gold for a Meal / Below: Blind Men Touch Elephant
In this body of work, I find important Chinese cultural traditions are very suprisingly in the development of my work, such as: Chinese shadow play; Chinese opera, and Taoist philosophy. -Mengnan Qu Artist Statement. See the Four-Word-Idiom Gallery on her website for more on these works.
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Oh wow. these are absolutely amazing. They really draw you in and make you want to discover their stories!
They truly do, and I wish I knew more of the fables.
I L-O-V-E it! I especially like the elephant. It was “shaped” as how the blind men described it after the touch certain parts of its body:
The one who held its body said it is thick like a wall,
The one who held its ear said it is big and flat like a hand-fan,
The one who held its trunk said it is long like a snake
and so on…
Excellent, because I had forgotten that fable and that’s exactly a fit to the work. Thank you.
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Completely unique! These are wonderful collection pieces. I can understand why the Ontario Craft Council is featuring these works.
Yes, so creative and the metal is so wonderfully produced, more like ceramics.
Yes, now that you mention it! I think I was thinking ceramic in the back of my eyes and brain.
Agree on the colors, and they’re just so unusual.
Fun and I love the bright red in each one.