Nina van Duijnhoven

  Nina van Duijnhoven

Artist statement

How to chain an elephant?

When a circus elephant is young and small, a metal clasp which is attached to a heavy metal chain is tightly closed around the baby elephant’s ankle. That ankle clasp is then hammered into the ground using a thick metal stake. The elephant keeps trying to break free, but eventually the experience of powerlessness is imprinted and he stops trying even as he grows older and stronger.

Bio

Nina completed her Bachelor of Applied Arts, majoring in Contemporary Jewellery at Whitireia, New Zealand in 2018.
Nina’s work explores environmental issues and spiritual beliefs such as impermanence and non-attachment. She examines non-attachment to material possessions, emotions, ideas and beliefs, attachments of artists to work made, to jewellery owned and worn. Paper is her current material of choice to express ideas around ephemerality.
Nina was a participant in Handshake 6 and 7. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and was selected for Schmuck 2020.

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