Gerrit Rietveld Academie Jewellery-Linking Bodies

You are warmly invited to the 2026 Jewellery–Linking Bodies graduation show at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, with Hannah Falcone; Dana Haire; Isabel Heatley; Anne-Sophie de Lange; June Querido; Niloofar Salehi and Hung-Fu Tsai.

Opening ceremony: 17:00, Wed, 1 July

Hours: Wed–Sat: 10:00–21:00 + Sun: 10:00–16:00

Location: Rietveld Building – 3rd floor, rooms 321, 322 + 325 Turn right at the top of the stairs, end of the hall

Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Fred.Roeskestraat 96, 1076 ED Amsterdam
IG: @rietveld_jewellery

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Across departments, the Rietveld Academy Graduation Show presents a wide range of works and approaches. There will be an extensive public programme alongside the exhibition. Further information on the Gerrit Rietveld Academie website: https://rietveldacademie.nl/en/page/36774/graduation-show-2026

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This year, a very special group of seven artists graduate from the Jewellery–Linking Bodies department. Alongside their studio works, the graduates of 2026 are memorable for their friendship. Here are seven individuals who support each other. Who collaborate. Who challenge one another across difference. And who make space for one another, whether it’s a good day or a bad one. The strength and diversity of practices that have been able to flourish is a testament to this dynamic, as is the curatorial sensitivity of the exhibition spaces themselves.

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To the graduates – thank you for teaching us the meaning of linked bodies.

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Hung-Fu Tsai’s knee-high topographical sculptural installation takes the aerial shape of a bó gǔ, a traditional Chinese shelf. Through etching, stitching and joinery, the work juxtaposes three narratives of migration – the artist’s own mobility as an international student, his grandfather’s maritime experiences and the relocation of the National Palace Museum’s collections to Taiwan.

Anne-Sophie de Lange presents three uncanny sculptures that combine materials intended to clean human bodies with objects removed from other animals. Fascinated by the idea that ‘dirt is matter out of place’ (Mary Douglas), the artist tells a story about where things belong, and questions how cleanliness influences the moral value assigned to objects and bodies in domestic settings.

Niloofar Salehi has created a reverent environment in which objects of brass, wood and textile may be worn by the visitor. In In Sounds of Nonverbal Communication – When Words Fall Short, the sound-making tools are an invitation. Here, the body speaks, carrying concepts beyond language and revealing what cannot be described but can always be felt.

Hannah Falcone’s practice finds its focus in the linked bodies of community. A Fly on the Wall began as research into Rietveld Academy’s systems of hierarchy. It unfolded into a long and gentle spanner throw at bureaucracy, finding its exhibition form as an office switch with Rietveld director Miriam Bestebreurtje for the duration of the graduation show.

To breathe is to participate to the world’s ongoing formation. So goes the thinking behind the paper, latex and pigment sculptures by Isabel Heatley. A forest of enwinded bodies in various stages of exhalation. The title stems from anthropologist Tim Ingold’s notion of the enwinded body as a body continuously formed through its relation with the air that surrounds it.

June Querido’s Neighbourhood Watch is an ode to the Jordaan in Amsterdam, a neighbourhood where windows act as transparent borders between public and private. Like the shaky, sun-worn installation itself and its delicate details, the home’s border feels fragile. As though a room had been carved out by its own shadow and its window held by beams of light.

Sugar creatures inhabit gaps and molasses sculptures skewered by steel find amorphous forms in Dana Haire’s The White Cube is Made of Sugar, which draws on Sylvia Wynter’s distinction between plot and plantation. The artist’s ever-changing sculptural installation is a sticky, drippy examination of extractivism. It considers what escapes preservation, what resists abstraction and what remains excluded from dominant histories.

with Nioosha Vaezzadeh Angoshtarsaz

“We’re living in a time where almost everything is just a click away—materials, tools, equipment, even instructions on how to learn a new skill. If you want to learn something, you can simply search YouTube and find countless tutorial videos. If you need materials, you can order whatever you want from Amazon and have it delivered from anywhere in the world.

But not everyone has access to these privileges, at least not where I come from. In Iran, internet access is limited. People have been cut out from the internet for many months and even when it’s available, you need a VPN. There’s no access to Amazon or global markets because of sanctions. The economy is struggling and planning for the future is difficult because of inflation. It’s a different world but people still live, and people still create.

In our culture, we have a concept called ghenaat. I could not find a perfect translation for it, but it carries meanings like simplicity, frugality, moderation and contentment. It is about living happily with what you have and using it in a way that makes it last. Historically, we applied ghenaat to essentials like water and bread. Because water is in short supply in our country, we learned to treat it with care and respect. Over time, the ghenaat mindset extended to other aspects of life.

I think it’s a valuable practice to sometimes place ourselves in situations where resources are limited. When materials and tools are little, creativity often steps in to fill the gaps.

You might ask, why should we practice this? Because we don’t know what the future holds. With everything happening in the world, wars, political Issues and climate change – uncertainty is part of our reality.

To give you a more tangible example: a fire can take everything away in a second. That happened to us in Idar-Oberstein. We lost our university, our workshops and our materials. But we didn’t lose hope. We adapted. We started creating in new ways, without relying on fully equipped workshops. We explored alternatives. For example, we had a great workshop with Maria Kunapp,where we learned how to use rotary tools to continue working with stone.

There is always a way to create.

And that brings me to this workshop.”

The workshop

In this special two-part workshop in May 2026, we’re going to intentionally place ourselves in a situation of limitation, practicing ghenaat, turning limitations into opportunities. Because no matter the circumstances, there is always a way.

Nioosha will guide students in accessible techniques such as cutting, shaping, and polishing, as well as tool-making as the need arises. The learning will happen hands-on, as students work on their own pieces. As we are limited in time, materials, and equipment, we make limitations the main focus of the workshop, and build meaning around them.

Students are invited to keep ghenaat in the back of their mind throughout the sessions.

Students will work with pre-cut stones or stones that already have simple, basic shapes along with other materials.

Artist bio

In Nioosha Vaezzadeh Angoshtarsaz’s words:

“I’m an Iranian jewelry artist based in Germany. I have a bachelor in restoration of historical building and a master of jewelry design from Germany, Idar-Oberstein. I mostly work with stones as the material and my work draws inspiration from my personal experiences of mistreatment and discrimination as a woman, experiences that have profoundly sharpened my awareness of how deeply these injustices are embedded in everyday life.

I grew up in a society that refuses to define a woman’s identity on its own terms, viewing it instead as inherently complementary to men. Through my art, I confront and expose the persistent reinforcement of inequality. I allow my pieces to speak where words often fail. When someone wears a ring from my Balls collection, they hold a sculpted form of male balls in their hand, as if having control over it. This act creates a symbolic reversal, a moment in which power shifts, forcing the wearer to question who normally possesses such control.

I also explore the paradox within religion in my work, using it as a central concept to question its contradictions. how religion can claim to carry messages of love, compassion, and peace, while also being associated with acts of violence and oppression especially against women. In some of my works, I shape forms that resemble the female body, bleeding, vulnerable. For example, in the necklace related to stoning, the overall form evokes a bleeding female organ, while the use of stones matching the size of those used in acts of stoning intensifies the contradiction between proclaimed messages of compassion and the reality of violence. Through this, the piece becomes a site of conflict a body under pressure, a silent yet urgent call for justice, and a struggle that longs for an end.”

Everything we see is light.

Light as light – touches everything we’ve seen and

Light as dark – allowing others to be seen

Light as pollution – always from a source

Light as obsession – to light something on fire

Light as memory – easily moved

Light as control – electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye

Light as touch – what is the weight of light?

The Jewellery – Linking Bodies Department invites you to meet light in a different lighght, at their special two-day exhibition at OT301. Celebrate with us at the opening. 

Friday, 8 May, 17.00-21.00

with Ben Wels, Brigid Morrison McFarland, Claire Vissac, Elisa Marciano, evin, Gabriela Sienkiewicz, Manon McNab, YUHNG DIOGENES

Title inspired by the one-word poem ‘lighght; by Aram Saroyan.