MA Fashion Artefact graduate Vann Kwok wins Arts Foundation Jewellery Award 2016

Congratulations to LCF MA Fashion Artefact graduate Vann Kwok, who has been announced as the winner of the prolific and prestigious Arts Foundation Jewellery Award 2016. The Arts Foundation exists to help artists and celebrate the existence of art. Awards of £10,000 are made to assist the artists with living and working expenses and are made on the basis of both talent and need to artists living and working in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Vann, who was featured on LCF News last year after winning the Jewellery Of The Year Award at the International Talent Support Awards, has spoken to LCF News about her involvement in the Arts Foundation Awards.

How did you find out about the Arts Foundation Jewellery Award?

I was nominated by my former MA Artefact tutor, Naomi Filmer.

What did you design for the competition?

I submitted a portfolio, which included my Out of Flux MA collection, a short film, plus some more individual pieces of work that I made last year. I also wrote a proposal for the fellowship. My works offer an aesthetic quality in the materials and surfaces of my objects and also a quality of experience through the physical space they occupy. I embrace the nature of materials, look for beauty in roughness, irregularity and the passing of time.

Can you tell us what the inspiration behind it was?

I drew inspiration from the compositions of colour, line, form and space in early western still life painting, and modernist geometric abstract paintings. My work also aims to address the tension between man and technology, and to expose the human desire to dominate nature, by intervening with technology to create a perfect, manageable world.

This is not the first competition you’ve won – how does that feel? Do you think entering competitions is a good way to get your work noticed?

I feel extremely honoured to have received the recognition from both the art and the jewellery industries. They definitely provide an important drive and support, for me to keep on designing artifacts that sit between the border of art, design and crafts. I also feel that it’s absolutely a very good way of getting my work to reach more audiences, as well as being a valuable opportunity to receive feedback from the industry.

What else are you working on at the moment and what are you future plans?

I’m working on a new collection for ITS 2016 at the moment, which will take place in Trieste this summer. I’m also working on another collaboration project with a photographer from New York City. My future plan is to have a debut art jewellery collection under the name of my label.