What Do You Long for When You Look Closely (diptych) by Paige Van Doren

Vessel/Sculpture

Enamel, steel, leather

7 in. x 10.5 in. x 1.5 in.

Metaphor is not singularly a convention of language, but a way of understanding the world relative to the body. I make objects and jewelry that operate as metaphors speaking to the psychological states we navigate. Each piece makes a bid for you to engage with both the body and mind; to fall into a sensorial and embodied space. The works engender a sense of empathy as they hold your gaze and glossy surfaces return a fragmented encounter with your reflection. Materials are pushed to a point of transformation; steel appears soft, leather imitates steel, vitreous enamel not as ornament, but a portal. The works extend an offering of slowness, of contemplation, of reimagining, of understanding that one thing can contain many things.