For me, Amsterdam is like heaven and hell. There are so many different types of people, and the cultural scene is incredibly vibrant – though it’s also precarious. There are so many of us, the scene feels oversaturated, and funding is being cut. But at the same time, it’s where I’ve met all the people I know: through university, art school, design school, performance, theatre, and living in unusual artist collectives. I’m really grateful to the city for being such a fertile ground for amazing people.
I’m organising a symposium on 8 November at If I Can’t Dance, bringing in people from outside the field of jewellery whose practice I see as related to it – reflecting what Current Obsession does. It’s about thinking of jewellery in a broader cultural, social, historical, and environmental context, and seeing how that shapes both creation and reception.
The symposium will be in three parts. First, a dual lecture on the mining industry, which also explores intimacy and desire: how intimacy arises at different points along the supply chain. Whose body comes into contact with the metal as it’s extracted and refined? That’s a kind of intimacy, even if it can be toxic.
Next, there will be a conversation about Philippine amulet jewellery, called anting anting. This will touch on jewellery, spirituality, and colonialism – exploring how Christian iconography was absorbed into animist traditions and how different cultures respond to spiritual crises, translating them materially. In the West, by contrast, we usually just send people to a psychiatric ward.
Finally, one of my favourite professors, Diego Semerene, will give a personal, essayistic talk reflecting on his own relationship with certain childhood jewellery boxes. His work draws on psychoanalysis and queer theory.
I love the combination of these three talks. For me, there’s a broader theme about inheritance in the widest sense: not just the jewellery we inherit and who gets to inherit it, but also the cultural ideologies we inherit, and the legacy we leave behind for future generations.
The second event is a three-session creative writing workshop on jewellery, organised with my friend Jimena Casas and inspired by Argentine poet Cecilia Pavón, who infuses rich symbolism into objects. Jimena and I will lead the first two sessions, with Cecilia teaching the third, focusing on her methodology. The workshop will culminate in a small reading event at If I Can’t Dance on Sunday evening, 9 November, where Cecilia will read new poetry alongside pieces created by the workshop participants. It’s going to be an intimate, relaxed evening celebrating writing and creativity.
My idea with the whole project is about cross-pollination between fields – academia, poetry, craft, and more. To make that work, you need to open things up a little.
IWP: My idea with the whole project is about cross-pollination between fields – academia, poetry, craft, and more. To make that work, you need to open things up a little. For the symposium, for example, there will be a varied audience with backgrounds in jewellery, academia, and beyond, so the speakers can keep that in mind. I’ll also tell the audience that it’s okay if you don’t understand everything – there are so many levels of interpretation. I hope to open up these different worlds and let them intersect.
Cover image: Tyler Chan 2o24 • Jewellery • 2025 • Image courtesy of Tyler Chan
This interview is part of the OBSESSED! Jewellery Festival series, featuring members of the OBSESSED! The Work Group has been activating their jewellery and design communities throughout the festival.
For more information about the festival, visit obsessedwithjewellery.com.
