Matt Gee

On approaching ‘mother of pearl remix’, the initial things the viewer can see is a black plinth, a reflective object on top, and another object on top of that, with the object at the summit appearing to rotate, taking about 20 seconds to do one revolution.
The object on top appears to be a shell, a pearl clam with two nails stuck to it in order for it to balance on its side. There are no wires attatched to the work as it appears to be battery powered, and moves according to being light sensitive.
On closer inspection the plinth appears to be covered in black crushed velvet, on top in the centre is a 30 CM wide mirrored jewellery turntable which fits perfectly. The clam and the nails are reflected in the turntable.
A jewellery turntable is an old-school typical method of display, and if you walk into a jewellery store you are almost certain to see cabinets laden with black felt or velvet. The context I wanted to arrange was associated with traditional jewellery display to frame the natural pearl clam. The pearl clam is completely untouched apart from a geometric shape I cut out of it, which frames anything behind it.
As the turntable rotates the clam is shown off to the viewer from different angles allowing it to gleam and glisten as light hits it, it also has an iridescent surface quality, due to it being covered in a composite material called nacre. Because the platelets are close to the wavelengths of visible light, the interfearence creates different colours of light. This natural optical phenomenon meaning different shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, red appear from the surface, this makes it look artificial as the viewer associates this muli-chromatic appearance with manufactured items.
The clam has been deep sea dived in Vietnam, but with this viewing context of art gallery/jewellery store, and its artificial appearance, I want the viewer to question where the artifact is from.