About Artist
Clarissa Long is an artist who lives and practices in Vancouver, British Columbia on Coast Salish Territory. She has a BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from NSCAD University. Her work has been exhibited in major international shows, including Talente in Munich, Germany and Beijing International Jewelry Exhibition in China. Clarissa has been awarded as a finalist in competitions including the 2017 winner of the Niche Awards, the L.A. Pai National Student Jewellery Competition and Western Living magazine’s Designer of the Year award for 2018. An advocate for the contemporary jewellery community, she is an instructor in the Lasalle College jewellery diploma program and has served as Chair of Exhibitions on the Vancouver Metal Arts Association board. Clarissa has also curated art jewellery exhibitions including 'The Maker's Mark' at Burrard Arts Foundation and 'Disrupt' at Craft Council of British Columbia.
Artist Statement:
I am interested in the symbiosis of dualities: the natural and man-made, old and new, east and west, departure and arrival, and how this can be investigated through alternative materials and methods of making. Overall, my work aims to skew views, to engage myself and others to look at things differently - whether that be through the consideration of an alternative material, through challenging preconceived notions of value or through looking in a different direction to see what appears. My art practice is process driven and is founded on asking questions and creating a forum where those questions can play out in a three-dimensional, sometimes wearable form.
My current bodies of work are material explorations utilizing the remaining offcuts discarded from product design. While these small, irregular pieces have become useless to their original intent and are destined for waste, they are the perfect scale and form for their new lives as jewellery, wearable art. My recent fascination with using these plastics and polystyrenes as new materials is out of respect to their inherent durability and longevity. For me, this makes them precious materials rather than disposable ones. These days, we are surrounded by many, many things, constantly available to us, easily consumed then disposed of and repeatedly replaced. I feel a responsibility as a maker, creating and adding more things into this world that material consideration is paramount.
The direction of my practice has grown to incorporate my personal history through processes of making. As a mixed race artist, my fascination with dualities and communicating through creation is rooted in my narrative.
