Su san Cohn: „Earrings are for listening“


Su san Cohn is an artist with multiple personalities working across the art-craft-design divide using a variety of media from jewellery to multiple production, installation, photography, video, and performance. Living in Melbourne Australia, she has been making work for over 39 years, exhibiting extensively in Australia and overseas. She trained in gold and silversmithing at RMIT University (Melbourne), holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art Theory and is director of Workshop 3000, 
a Melbourne access metal workshop. Cohn is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, with her most recent solo exhibition Pieces of Peace,
June 2023. 


Cohn’s broad understanding of design and making has also enabled her to work as a designer for Alessi, the Italian tableware company as the curator of the international exhibition Unexpected Pleasures – the Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, commissioned by the Design Museum, London and as editor/writer for the accompanying book published by Rizzoli International Publications, 
New York.
In 2017 Cohn was awarded the Australia Council Artist award. 

I explore the role of jewellery in our social, political and cultural contexts, focusing on how jewellery talks for people and how it relates to the body. My interests lie in how our possessions become invested with multiple values and symbolic meanings. My research-based and collaborative process includes working with different skilled artists, filmmakers, scientists, and industrialists to channel new ways of working and technologies into my designs.



Cohn Bios:

Su san Cohn

41 odd years addicted to JEWELLERY

39 years director WORKSHOP 3000, Melbourne

Exhibition, production, commission work
jewellery, tableware, installation, performance
curating, writing, collaborating
Dubious character who likes dubious techniques
always working, always experimenting
Plays with boundaries, never gives up
too much experience, many mistakes, some heartbreaks
a few surprises, some successes
endless fun.

Unterstützt durch die Museumsstiftung zur Förderung der Staatlichen Bayerischen Museen
Vermächtnis Christof und Ursula Engelhorn