Flaming Heart Brooch #1

Bio:

Mallory Weston is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Her work involves a marriage between traditional jewelry techniques and textile techniques, and she creates large-scale wearable pieces that allow metal to move with the fluidity of fabric. She received her MFA in Jewelry + Metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2013. Mallory works as an Assistant Professor of Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia. Mallory maintains an active studio practice as a member of the JV Collective, a group of seven art jewelers that are anchored in Philadelphia, but national in scope. She is an engaged participant in the global art jewelry community, regularly collaborating with other makers and artistic platforms. She recently completed artist residencies at Baltimore Jewelry Center and with the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation in Amsterdam. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the CODA Museum and Design Museum Den Bosch in the Netherlands and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Arts and Design in the United States.

Artist Statement:

I am interested in the life of symbols, their multiple meanings, sometimes conflicting interpretations, and the way they change over time. Symbols have a long history in jewelry, and they allow you to immediately connect with an audience. This quality is heightened by the ubiquity of symbols in communication, from emoji to memes. Our symbols are evolving at an increasingly rapid rate that reflects the spread of information and virality seen in digital spaces. I juxtapose my symbols and imagery with the markers of our transient technology, cracked screens and digital mesh. Constructed of anodized Titanium, my work employs the same materials used in the sleek devices we depend on every day.