Nameplate Poetry | Work

Nameplate Poetry is a series by Kelly Shami that uses traditional nameplate jewelry as an art form. In the series of photographs, Kelly uses words to create messages pertaining to unrequited love or break-ups. She believes that jewelry is highly sentimental, usually in the positive notion, given or gifted as an act of love. With this series she plays with it ironically, expressing hurt feelings with luxury. She sees the power of jewelry to show pain, rather than jewelry serving as a coveted gift of love. The jewelry pieces themselves are nostalgic to the artist’s childhood of working in her father’s store. Kelly creates all the designs of the handmade nameplates herself and shoots the photographs as self-portraits.