Fan He

Fan He is a jewellery designer and object maker from China. She graduated from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology with a bachelor's degree in Jewellery Design and has completed an MA in Jewellery and Metal at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by her observations, she uses the language of jewellery to respond to events taking place around her from a humanistic perspective. Her work reflects her own thinking in relation to society and community.

“Are you religious?

Why do you need an amulet?

Does it work for you?

What do you believe?”

Inspired by her own amulet and these questions, Fan began her research on luck and belief. From drinking water and burning a spell to reposting a lucky image on social media, superstition is updated in the way it is disseminated. While underlying anxiety is not addressed, the need for superstition will persist. Superstition is eternal. Superstitions usually arise in the context of religion and regional culture. Are superstitions valid and convincing outside of these specific conditions? How can we reflect deeply on the influence of superstition in the contemporary world? These are all concerns in Fan's work.

In the Belief series, the works are based on different shrines, which are the starting point of the narrative of the material and a metaphor for the process of building and awakening people's beliefs. The stacking of materials is a repetitive ritual, changing the material but also returning it to its original properties. Entering a state of focused thinking with the help of repetitive actions, Fan tries to uncover the truth of beliefs and challenge the over-dependence on ego.

Rituals are triggers for luck, connecting mystical energy through action, and ritual is built by strengthening certain sensations, differentiating it from everyday behaviour. So, how do people become lucky through rituals in their daily lives? Fan attempts to defamiliarise objects in Daily Luck, exploring the symbolism of materials and colours in modern culture. She links habitual behaviour to distant and mysterious luck, so that people can discover the luck-making meaning that has been neglected in everyday objects. Objects are used as lucky energy boxes, with a simple action of taking out the amuletic ring that symbolises the tendency for events to go smoothly.

New Ways To Pray focuses on a familiar tool of production – the computer. Some details of situations in which people use computers overlap with those involving traditional religious rituals. Moving from a religious to a secular perspective, the series challenges attitudes to traditional rituals and addresses the changing context of superstition. What can really change destiny? Can it replace superstition?

Hidden Shrine Necklace

Belief, mother-of-pearl, silver, cotton rope, stainless steel wire

Various Shrine Brooch

Mother-of-pearl is often seen as a decorative material, from shells to flakes: it is broken and fragile. The flakes are reconstituted into a rigid whole and become a new ‘shell’. Corresponding to its characteristics, the base nurtures pearls and creates the origin of power.