Chong’s interest in jewellery was initiated from a doubtable instinct of its coincidental connection with the term Postmodernism. Utilizing the notion of possession in jewellery, this series experiments with the relationship between artist, participant, and audience.
‘Wear Tall Hat’, in Chinese, denotes a meaning of flattering somebody. The instruction could be interpreted as the jeweller’s willingness to ‘flatter the audience a tall hat’, or the audience wanting to flatter the jeweller by complying with her instruction, but such actions can make embarrass the wearer in public (where this ‘tall hat’ been placed). This satirizes the relationship between a contemporary artist and their audience – whether integrate or make a fool of each other. They neglect the existence of a stable essence with a lack of specific metaphor, allowing various semantic interpretations. Generality emerges as a concrete subject only with the combination of participation, context, and the contemporality.
‘Welcome To Step on My Jewellery’ responds to the dilemma of territorial sovereignty between countries which is widely debated internationally.
‘Contemporary Heirlooms: Gold Circle and Red Circle’ depicts scepticism toward eternality by reinterpreting precious materials. With each time of owning the ‘jewellery’ through the circle-drawing ritual, gold will wear off a bit and the diamond creates pain. They reflect on the rapid loss of lives and painfully depletion left to the still-livings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Inherit Within Highest Level / Inherit Within Lowest Level’ criticizes the nonsense of rigid stratification in a materialistic society.
‘Renaissance of Bartering’ reflects both progress and regress of trading—during the pandemic, virtual payment and shopping play important roles and are acceleratingly developed, which turns using the real money into a feeling of ‘renaissance’. Whereas people in some places start to barter food and essentials with each other to survive in the lockdown shortage, reminiscent of the ancient ritual.