Gan Lu

Lu Gan is a jewellery artist from China. She formerly studied and worked in the field of industrial design. In the process, she was influenced by contemporary art and transferred to the study of jewellery art. Her work has always explored the contradictions arising from the operation of society and the position of human beings in the social environment.

Lu is still engaged in the design industry. From 2014 to 2018, she studied industrial design in Beijing. She is currently doing her project research for an MA at the Royal College of Art and is engaged in jewellery design in Hangzhou, China.

Lu’s work has always shown her unique perspective on society. During the two years of studying at the Royal College of Art, she has been exploring the opportunities and transformations she has made from an industrial designer to a jewellery artist, and she hopes that this personal transformation will trigger social thinking.

Her project explores the use of online space and offline space, and how they change the shape of society and their impact on humans. In the study of industrial design, she felt deeply that the use of data is becoming a trend based on various reasons such as cost and efficiency. Offline resources, that is, resources that exist physically, are gradually being reallocated. Many people are gradually being deprived of the right to know materiality and objectivity. Will this change make some people lose their ability to be themselves in this society, as well as their ability to perceive the world and themselves? This is the question she has focused on.

Body Store collection — This collection is laid out into apps, using the rounded rectangles unique to apps to connect offline and online spaces.

Ear stud — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×35mm

Nose ring — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×35mm

Ring — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×30mm

Bracelet — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×35mm

Lip stud — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×40mm

Tongue pin — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×40mm

Toe ring — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×20mm

Necklace — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×30mm

Belly ring — Epoxy, Silver 90mm×90mm×30mm

This series is derives from the previous series. Lu has attempted to use alginate to cast different parts of her body. She used epoxy material to create a collection of transparent body sculptures containing real jewellery. In this series, what is lost is not the jewellery, but part of the human body. The material resources have not been lost, but the opportunities for humans to come into contact with them are lost.

In this series, what she wants to achieve is also an ‘inefficient’ result, which is also a very deep experience of her learning transformation. The jewellery we give, or the definition of various materials, is a cognitive process. She says that in her series, jewellery seems to be worn, but in fact, it has lost its function of being worn, and asks: can it still be called ‘jewellery’? Similarly, when the virtual reality we are exposed to provides us with the same experience, is there any necessity for reality?

Medium:

Epoxy, Silver

Empty Ring

Empty Necklace

Lu is exploring value in this series. Using 3D printing technology, she made transparent entities with negative spaces for gems and made them into jewellery. The question she asked is whether we truly get the value when we are given the virtual experience brought about by the data. And whether people who overuse data bring benefits are using so-called ‘value’ to create a scam.

The series includes a ring and a necklace.

Medium:

Silver，Resin

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Materiality and AbstractionApplied arts

Gan Lu

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Royal College of Art