Mothers of PearlJun Kamei

Media

Wood, Calcium carbonate, Glass

Year

2016

Artwork

What if a part of our body turned into a pearl?

“Mothers of pearl” is an experience that transforms the human breath into a crystal of pearl. By blowing into a liquid containing all the ingredient necessary for the transformation, each breath is captured as a record of our everyday life and turned into a thin layer of pearl. The pearl contains the exhaled carbon dioxide and is therefore made with the same atom as our body. The accumulation of these pearl layers creates a texture specific to the person, reflecting the characteristics of each individual.

This project aim to question our relationship with objects and hack our perception of value, when the shiny pearl jewelry becomes a physical history of our life.

Artist

Jun Kamei. Born in Japan, Osaka. Jun pursued his career in academic at the Tohoku University in Japan where he specialized in chemistry, biochemistry and biomimicry research.

His previous work include transparent electronics for smart contact lenses, self-cleaning material inspired from carnivorous plant and fish. Currently enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London, his artwork combines inspiration from Nature and fundamental question on values of objects. Caught by the beauty of natural material such as the nacre of shellfish and the metabolism of human being, his current theme is to transform the human being into a biological manufacturing unit to give birth to valuable mi-objects mi-self.