Un-Applied Reflections I

Notes

"Still life has historically been understood as the arrangement of objects. I am interested in the arrangement of identities. Rather than translating still life into jewellery, my practice extends it from the pictorial plane into lived experience, exploring how identity, memory, and cultural ritual are carefully curated yet continually transformed through embodiment, perception, and reflection.As a contemporary Muslim jeweller, I work with metal, mirrors, embroidery, crochet, and textile handcraft to investigate how personal and collective identities are constructed and negotiated.

My jewellery enters into conversation with Scott Fraser's “Applied Reflections”, extending its concerns with curation and reflection beyond the painted surface. Like Fraser's compositions, my works begin as carefully planned arrangements. However, unlike the fixed image of a painting, they evolve through fabrication, material behaviour, wearing, and the changing reflections of mirrored surfaces, becoming open to continual reinterpretation.

The title Un-Applied Reflections reflects this shift from controlled composition to lived experience, where identity cannot be fully authored but is continually reshaped through the gaze of others. Alongside Unravelling I and II, these works explore the tension between order and instability, ritual and unpredictability, transforming still life into an embodied, relational experience that carries memory, cultural inheritance, and evolving narratives."

Statement by Mariambibi Khan, 2026

Inspired by: Applied Reflections by Scott Fraser, 2014

Applied Reflections by Scott Fraser, 2014