Patrícia Harsány
- City
- Budapest
- Country
- Hungary
As a jewellery designer and multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of contemporary jewellery, visual art and material research, I am based in Budapest. The focus of my practice is on the relationship between the human body and objects. I explore how cultural meaning, value and function change through material choice and context. I view jewellery not only as a form of adornment, but also as a conceptual, performative and critical medium.
My work is driven by material experimentation and the tension between tradition and innovation. I work with hybrid and unconventional materials, such as bioplastics, biomaterials, found objects and recycled elements, which I often combine with classical jewellery techniques. I question established hierarchies of value, permanence and materiality through processes that emphasise tactility and abstraction from function.
My practice is characterised by the integration of personal research and narrative components, which function as key elements in my artistic approach. These aspects enable the work to exist on multiple layers, inviting viewers to engage with it through reflection, reinterpretation and bodily engagement.
I work primarily with contemporary jewellery and metalworking, supported by material-driven research and experimentation. My practice has evolved over the past 15 years at the intersection of craft, design and art, with a strong focus on questioning the conventions of jewellery as a medium. I later pursued Jewellery Design studies at MOME, where I received a design- and process-oriented education, building on an earlier technical background in metalwork.
Over time, my interest shifted toward critically expanding traditional jewellery methods through the integration of unconventional materials such as found objects and biomaterials. Three years ago, I began working with biomaterials during my internship at the Basque BioDesign Center. My work addresses established hierarchies of value, material and permanence, using material choices and hybrid techniques as conceptual tools rather than purely aesthetic decisions.
My preferred techniques involve combining metal with experimental materials and reinterpreting traditional processes through hybrid approaches.
I am particularly drawn to methods that allow for critical interpretation through tactility, light interaction and performative or bodily engagement, enabling jewellery to operate not only as an object, but as an experience.
Artworks
The project applies a critical design approach to jewellery by reinterpreting ready-made objects. Elements with different original functions are combined based on shared structural aesthetics, forming compositions that appear contradictory. Centred on the human body and its visual environment, the work questions the lifespan of objects, material value, and the growing estrangement between humans and their built surroundings, while expanding the classical understanding of jewellery through unconventional materials and recontextualised functions.
The Planetarium series transforms everyday metal filters into intimate, hand-embroidered objects. Through slow, repetitive gestures, the act of embroidery becomes a meditative process that materialises an inner rhythm. The cold, industrial surface turns into something tactile and personal; a fragile constellation of threads, light and structure. Each piece captures a quiet tension between precision and softness, mechanism and emotion. The embroidered filters evoke miniature universes, where ordinary materials gain a new, poetic presence.
The exhibition presents three months of material research in an interactive way. The two types of material; bacterial cellulose and textile waste give bioplastic materials different characteristics. These include transparency, flexibility and water resistance. The exhibition explores the potential of these materials and presents the simple cooking process involved in producing them.
The series was a project for the Milan Fashion Residency research program, where I researched the connection between imitation and materials through 20th-century Italian bigiotteria. I drew parallels between contemporary jewelry design and material use in Milan today. The theoretical research was accompanied by my own critical collection, exploring the relationship between everyday objects and objects evoking today's bigiotteria.