The Collection of Jane Ryan and William Saunders: Jewelry in Augmented Reality

February 25, 2022 - February 25, 2023

The Collection of Jane Ryan & William Saunders is a radical act of digital restitution. With recourse to the Latin etymology; ‘radix’ meaning ‘root’, artist Pio Abad and designer Frances Wadsworth Jones enact a moment of return that raises the calcified but under-acknowledged ghosts of Philippine past towards a more conscious futurism. Using 3D scanning and AR technologies the project, curated by John Kenneth Paranada produces and distributes digital replicas of Imelda Marcos’ much contested jewellery collection; icons of stolen wealth, to the people of the Philippines. 

Artist

Pio Abad and Frances Wadsworth Jones

About

London-based Filipino artist Pio Abad and British designer Frances Wadsworth Jones started their collaborative work in 2018. They have since exhibited together at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; Kadist, San Francisco; Bellas Artes Projects, Manila and the 2nd Honolulu Biennial, Hawai’i. Forthcoming projects include the 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennial in 2022. Abad has shown internationally over the past 10 years most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; the 12th Gwangju Biennial, Korea; Para Site, Hong Kong and CCA Glasgow. Wadsworth Jones has had recent presentations at London and Paris Fashion Weeks; Vitsoe, Munich; David Roberts Art Foundation, London and The Museum of London. Their works are in the collection of the Hawai’I State Art Museum, Honolulu; Art Jameel, Dubai and Tate, UK.

​​John Kenneth Paranada is a London-based Filipino curator, writer and researcher. He is currently the Curator of Performance and Engagement at the Zabludowicz Collection in London. Paranada is also working on the opening of the Centre for Ecologies, Sustainable Transitions and Environmental Consciousness (CESTEC) in Los Baños, Philippines - an experimental ecological platform for trans-interdisciplinary practices to converge and tease out tropical futurisms. He was a curatorial research fellow at the New Museum New York in partnership with NTU CCA Singapore. He has worked with galleries and institutions including kamel mennour gallery, RAW Material Company (Dakar), HKW Berlin, Swiss Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2016, NUS Museum (Singapore), the 9th Shanghai Biennale, amongst others.