Juefang Yang

For my final project, I have re-made a court necklace[1], based on a painting on silk of an Imperial court necklace in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I use my hands to make ‘pearls’ out of different kinds of natural soil collected from all over the world. I have spent hour after hour, day after day, shaping and polishing until each sphere shines like a pearl. This way of shaping raw clay is extremely delicate, taking lots of time and focused attention. I used the technique called Dorotango and also the skills I have developed myself. The combination of material, temporality, knowledge, skill, mood and feeling is the framework through which value is established. To draw the attention to how we consider the definition of royalty and luxury, I created a seated portrait of me wearing the Hand-made Pearl Court Necklace, making reference to Qing Emperor portraits painted by Castiglione.

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[1] The court necklace (Chao Zhu) was a symbol of the imperial power of the Qing dynasty. The use of the court necklace was restricted to imperial nobles and officials down to the fifth rank. The materials each rank of person could use for their court necklace were strictly prescribed. Only the Emperor and Empress could wear pearl court necklace.