TACTILE CHRONICLES: The 2022 Silver Society of Canada NSCAD Student Competition of Fine Metal Sculpture

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    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Cigarette Monster Object: ashtray Materials: Copper, silver Dimensions: 17 x 13 x 12 cm Date: March 2022
    Rayce Min
    $1,000.00
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Cigarette Monster Object: ashtray Materials: Copper, silver Dimensions: 17 x 13 x 12 cm Date: March 2022

    Rayce Min

    $1,000.00
    /

    Title: Cigarette Monster

    Materials: Copper, silver

    Dimensions: 17 x 13 x 12 cm

    Date: March 2022

    Artwork Statement: The inspiration of the piece is my smoking addiction. I feel like it is a monster to myself. If I keep feeding it, it will grow, therefore putting out cigarettes in the ashtray is an act of feeding the monster. The main material is copper, and the eyes, claws, and teeth are silver. The monster was built with one giant spiculum with two small spiculums, and they are violently bent. I also applied electro-forming for the overall texture, to make it more monster-like.

    Artist Bio: Rayce Min has been interested in crafting and expanding his artistic skills since high school. His primary experience with jewellery was the steam punk style jewellery he made for the school fair. Even though they were pre-made pieces glued together, he impressed people with his unique aesthetic toward jewellery, which he decided to develop further when he got into college. Real jewellery making and metalsmithing led him to a whole different understanding of jewellery, and metal became his favorite media. He appreciates how tough yet flexible the metals are. There are tons of different things he can do with metal. He is developing his jewellery/metalsmithing skills to incorporate his love of graffiti, especially the concept of leaving marks everywhere. Now he can leave marks on people, instead of just plain walls. Overall, he has been working toward the approach for a few years now, and he is still improving himself at NSCAD University.

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    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Rayce Min
    $1,000.00
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm
    Artist: Rayce Min Title: Adulthood Object: teapot Materials: Copper, silver Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm

    Rayce Min

    $1,000.00
    /

    Title: Adulthood

    Materials: Copper, silver

    Technique: Deep draw forming, raising, forging, fabrication

    Dimensions: 29 x 8 x 15 cm

    Date: April 2022

    Artwork Statement: The teapot was created to commemorate my transition from the mindset of a high school teenager to an adult mindset (more or less). I started to work, started to care about things and people, started to face superiors at work, had weird relationships with others, etc. All of them were stressing me out, and it felt like all of them fused into a giant blob that was sitting on me. And yet I was still trying to find a way out, which led to the overall form of the teapot. The main material is copper with a little bit of silver for the stitches. The body was made with deep draw forming, and forcefully crushed with the hydraulic press. The lid is a raised ball-shaped blob, with hand-cut cracks and solder patterning as decoration. The texture on the lid was made with a wood file. The spouts are bent tubes soldered together to create a branch look, and the handle was forged from a copper rod, creating anorganic look.

    Artist Bio: Rayce Min has been interested in crafting and expanding his artistic skills since high school. His primary experience with jewellery was the steam punk style jewellery he made for the school fair. Even though they were pre-made pieces glued together, he impressed people with his unique aesthetic toward jewellery, which he decided to develop further when he got into college. Real jewellery making and metalsmithing led him to a whole different understanding of jewellery, and metal became his favorite media. He appreciates how tough yet flexible the metals are. There are tons of different things he can do with metal. He is developing his jewellery/metalsmithing skills to incorporate his love of graffiti, especially the concept of leaving marks everywhere. Now he can leave marks on people, instead of just plain walls. Overall, he has been working toward the approach for a few years now, and he is still improving himself at NSCAD University.

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    JUNE 4 — 24, 2022

    The Silver Society of Canada seeks to encourage the next generation of metalsmiths through an annual award given to institutions with silversmithing programs. Kye-Yeon Son, Professor of Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing at NSCAD University, teamed up with Lisa Pai at L. A. Pai Gallery to exhibit the approximately 20 pieces of hollowware, each expressing a unique narrative reflective of its maker.

    Son, a Governor General/Saidye Bronfman Laureate who is renowned internationally for her vessels, comments:

    “I’m always amazed at the result of students’ work with basic silversmithing technique[s]. I want students to have experience of what contemporary silversmithing is and develop their confidence in the fabrication of larger pieces.” 

    The students are recent graduates, with classes covering techniques such as forging, large-scale fabrication, hand raising and sinking, deep draw hydraulic press forming, anticlastic and synclastic forming, chasing, and repoussé; techniques exemplified in the exhibition works.

    Emma Piirtoniemi reviewed the exhibition work in her article for MetalAid Canadian Art Jewellery Network:  ‘While the projects presented include making specific functional objects like candle holders, teapots, and other vessels, it’s clear that students imbued these objects with rich storytelling— often biographical—reaching far beyond functionality. They brave the complexities of life, loss, change, and challenges through these works that in one form or another, all come our way. To celebrate student achievement and make space for them to share their artistic voices is indeed a powerful way to encourage the next generation of metalsmiths. As Son hints, “This is my small effort in this small corner of Canada to keep a little flame of hollowware [alive] for students so when they leave, they keep this flame of interest. I just want them to have confidence [that] they can do it, and be proud of what they’ve done.”