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Stones of the Grassland’: Incorporate Inner Mongolian Cultural Heritage in jewellery

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posted on 2025-01-22, 14:52 authored by Zihan ZhouZihan Zhou, Roberta BernabeiRoberta Bernabei

This paper is part of the first author’s PhD project ‘Wearable Memories: Contemporary Jewellery Practice Based on the Study of Nomadic Culture in the North China’. It is an investigation inspired by animal motifs of prehistoric rock art in Inner Mongolia, China.

Today, the nomadic lifestyle and traditions of Inner Mongolia are disappearing; however, their art and culture are unique and inspiring. While numerous studies exist on the cultural heritage of Inner Mongolia and its influence on contemporary art, it is scarcely evident in the field of contemporary jewellery. Based on the identification of a ‘core aesthetic’ of Inner Mongolian nomadic culture visible in the Yinshan Rock Art, this paper introduces practice-based research which investigates animal motifs from Inner Mongolian rock art and recuperates and revivifies them through contemporary jewellery practice.

This research aims to commemorate, recall and preserve the memories of Inner Mongolian nomadic culture by infusing its aesthetics into contemporary jewellery. The principal research question proposed for this project is: How can contemporary jewellery practice incorporate the traditional aesthetic values of Inner Mongolia?

The methodology employed in this practice-based research builds on the historical and theoretical study of Yinshan Rock Art and involves both ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods. This paper starts with a short overview of the contemporary jewellery movement highlighting the Chinese context, followed by the historical review of animal forms in Yinshan Rock Art as a key inspiration and research process for a body of contemporary jewellery. The creative process is elucidated with visual aids and the presentation of the final pieces.

History

School

  • Design and Creative Arts

Department

  • Creative Arts

Published in

Journal of Jewellery Research

Volume

7

Pages

58 - 78

Publisher

Journal of Jewellery Research (JJR)

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© Journal of Jewellery Research and the author.

Publisher statement

All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the applicable copyright legislation, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher or author. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact the editors: editorsjojr@gmail.com

Publication date

2024-12-31

Copyright date

2024

ISSN

2516-337X

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Roberta Bernabei. Deposit date: 20 January 2025

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