“OBSESSION & HARMONY by JAM”

To adorn oneself cleverly, to set accents for other eyes with glittering forms, to stage one’s own body with sparkling jewels – all this is part of Asian culture, as the rice fields are part of its landscape.

This delight in decoration is particularly pronounced among the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Siam.

Jewellery – here, until now, that has meant the repetition of old motifs and traditional styles.
The question of whether fashion can also be art does not arise.
An artist who ventures out of this cycle is likely to find little attention. Perhaps he will even meet with rejection.
The opposite is the case.

JAM, son of a noble family from Bangkok, proves it.
He is an artist from Thailand who, with his jewellery creations, tries to trace the boundary between a craft that shapes fashion and art. He breaks, cuts and saws old, valuable material and alienates it in a fascinating way with youthful boldness.
He succeeds in the balancing act between avant-garde ideas and archaic patterns.

His objects are sensual and physical and a pleasure to wear, but beyond that they are also a confrontation with the upheavals in his own society and the values of Thai tradition.
JAM respects this heritage and at the same time, with devotion, marks his own view of the world, which no longer knows narrow boundaries. He lends an aura to the transience of fashion. In doing so he makes it valuable and, at best, art.

In 2006 he had his first exhibition in Bangkok. A huge success. Fashion designers from New York, Bangkok and Milan now use his objects for their fashion shows. Yet something in JAM’s work resists. His pieces refuse to serve as an accessory to a beautiful surface; they are not goods to be quickly consumed or left to rot.

They need the elegance of classic fashion. There they work like music, showing the body as a marvellous creation. Otherwise, JAM’s art belongs on the wall.

This jewellery artist belongs to a new generation of creative young people in Asia. With obsession, they embrace a life with art. They succeed in combining this new, impetuous, monsoon-like age with the quiet, long-tried wisdom of their traditions. Their recipe is no secret. It is: harmony.

JAM was born in Bangkok on 5 November 1980. He grew up in England for a long time and studied art and architecture at, among other places, London Metropolitan University. Today he lives in Bangkok.