San W Studio | Letter of Motivation

CJ Assembly
Challenging Jewellery
Benthem Crouwel building
Fred. Roeskestraat 98
1076ED Amsterdam
The Netherlands

San W Studio
4th Floor, South Building
Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts
2200 Wenxiang Road
Songjiang District, Shanghai

January 15th, 2019

Dear Yiwei Wu,

We are applying for the San W’s artist-in-residence program as a group of artists, thinkers and designers, called CJ Assembly.

Initially formed as the Challenging Jewellery program at the Sandberg Instituut, we envision our contribution as an opportunity to showcase jewellery as a social currency and celebrate moments of common humanity in physical form.

With this in mind, our goal at San W is to create a reward system based on communication and gesture, rather than accomplishment. Can we design decoration to signify the exchange of deep human value? Can we exchange jewellery as a method for making valuable human attributes visible? These questions are at the core of our current and ongoing research.

As you suggested earlier, we would be pleased to collaborate with local craftsmen at San W Studio to create a dialogue based on materials and savoir-faire. And, since these days the biggest shifts in all fields seem to be technological, we are also interested in learning about the fast paced industrial production and innovative aspects of Chinese culture. We would be happy to give lectures and initiate exchanges, discussions and/or workshops during our stay in Shanghai, and to exhibit our work at San W gallery.

Could you confirm your interest in our participation and tell us if you have any preferred dates for our stay or further practical information, requirements or ideas? We would be available to come to Shanghai for a period of two to three weeks—dates to be found between August 2019 to Spring 2020.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
CJ Assembly