Kexin Zhang

"I received my postgraduate degree in Jewellery Design from the Royal College of Art in Antwerp in 2023. Prior to that I did my undergraduate degree in Jewellery Design in China.

In my projects I usually work on social issues or the relationship between humans and the natural environment or animals. As a jewellery designer, I prefer to work with non-traditional jewellery materials. Depending on the needs of my projects I experiment with different materials and try to create designs that are not traditionally worn. This can sometimes lead to my work not very 'jewellery -like'."

In this series, I want to question the distorted values of life within anthropocentrism, more precisely the human exploitation of animals. Through my research, I have found that humans give different value to animals, based on various subjective reasons. For example, pets are precious and cute, while rats on the street are disgusting and worthless. In many industries, people also measure the value of animal life based on whether they can benefit from it. People take useful parts from animals and dispose of the useless parts. We take the meat and fur but throw away the bones.

I feel sad and powerless about this phenomenon. Therefore, I have collected many leftover animal parts to create a visual contrast. I transform these items that people consider useless or repulsive into a feeling of preciousness and sadness to express my mourning and respect. In this way I want to make people rethink the definition of the value of life.

On view at The Other Space