NUDE
JADE
PIERCED
Pendant
Jade
Surgical stainless steel
HANSEL TAI
2018
SOLD
Nude Jade Pierced (NJP) Vol.2 - Nude Cuboid
The ongoing project Nude Jade Pierced takes on the sacred material: jade. Celebrated as the ultimate symbol of perfection and purity and valued for its translucent, skin like glow, jade is often carved into intricate mythological and religious forms.
The focus of Hansel Tai's research is the LGBTQ+ culture among young Pan-Asians on a global scale. And he does it by questioning traditional symbols. Tai's pendants, formally reduced and abstracted, are penetrated with heavy ready-made circular barbell piercings. With this gesture – which is inconceivable, on many levels, to those familiar with traditional jade carving – Tai subdues the sacred jade, aiming to evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer.
In this body of work Tai translates and subverts the traditional symbolism, through a transgressive and alienating action, puncturing the stone with piercing, in an almost impossible act.
The ongoing project Nude Jade Pierced takes on the sacred material: jade. Celebrated as the ultimate symbol of perfection and purity and valued for its translucent, skin like glow, jade is often carved into intricate mythological and religious forms.
The focus of Hansel Tai's research is the LGBTQ+ culture among young Pan-Asians on a global scale. And he does it by questioning traditional symbols. Tai's pendants, formally reduced and abstracted, are penetrated with heavy ready-made circular barbell piercings. With this gesture – which is inconceivable, on many levels, to those familiar with traditional jade carving – Tai subdues the sacred jade, aiming to evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer.
In this body of work Tai translates and subverts the traditional symbolism, through a transgressive and alienating action, puncturing the stone with piercing, in an almost impossible act.
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