Rayce Min
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.