Kelly Temple

Is it possible to change the way we view the human body’s need for repair or supplementation? If it were not one of automatic recoil, how would our perceptions of the body differ, and to what societal effect? I explore this through jewellery objects that combine bodily forms and surfaces with structures and shapes prevalent in jewellery and ornament, creating moments of curiosity and unease, replicating the surface of the human body through biological mimicry. Using microbial cellulose (MiC) to represent the body, inflated skin-like forms framed in metal imply sites of imagined interventions. When worn, they conjure notions of unnecessary adornment, physical identity and self-ownership through the failed, repaired or supplemented body. I aim to redefine the way we view the supplemented body by encouraging its acceptance in contemporary society.