Teng Fei has long been thought of as the one who “opened up” Chinese art jewelry, and China’s “first Conceptual Jewelry artist”. She has given us a definition for jewelry’s “new” meaning, channeling her experiences with contemporary jewelry into contemplation on her own place in contemporary art—what is contemporary art as adornment? Here, jewelry and Teng Fei’s art practices are intertwined; here, contemporary art and everybody’s life experiences are interrelated.
They are there, blossoming, still murmuring to us, making us stop, reflect, reckon; we can’t help ourselves wanting to touch them, stroke them; we can’t restrain from wanting to pick them up, collect them on our fingers, hold them in our chests; carefully scrutinizing them, listening to them, sharing the gentleness that through the heat of our bodies, through our stories, will be nourished—it is saturating the space and time of our secret hearts, effortlessly becoming our mildest, calmest and most vivid selves. Facing Teng Fei’s work, we must gasp at the differences between “family heirlooms” andthese things – the characteristics of their pure individualism and artistry.
PIFO prospectively hopes that Teng Fei’s unique art practices will lodge within and move your innermost heart.