Jewellery works as imagined accessories of the re-invented Hero

This research was to investigate how I could create new jewellery objects that can be worn or carried by the body that can also be viewed as accessories of invented characterizations of reimagined hero archetypes. These were new original characters based on mythological arhetypes but narratively situated within a contemporary urban milieu. The intention was that these objects could be worn by actual persons but also imagined as museological artefacts, pertaining to a contrived history as if the objects were personal accoutrement of characters from a two- dimensional science fiction/fantasy based media. This work investigates how depictions of personal worn objects can become important signifiers of broader aspects of a narrative. It considers the potential of creating new character based jewellery works that have an imaginative subtext of the superhero so that through wear the wearer can imaginatively place him/herself as a character within an alternate narrative. While there have been many interpretations of art based jewellery works that involve a specific relationship between the jewellery work and the real character of the wearer, such as the work of Swiss/ German artist Otto Künsli and the work of Japanese Yuka Oyama, this creative work investigates the wearer as a fantasized character, one that is part of a science fiction/fantasy narrative, combining narrative allusion with the corporeal jewellery object. In this exhibition the works are installed in relation to graphic character diagrams. The positioning of the work has a pretext that is museological that suggests the placement of the jewellery objects in a broader narrative structure that extends beyond the object itself. A portion of this exhibition was part of a larger project funded by a New Work (Established) Australia Council grant for $20,000, awarded in 2011.