Charlotte's Commission: Exchange

The bead-filled bottles are an expression of how a piece might change over time, if its owner could exchange certain elements periodically. The bottles begin at the top (12 o’clock) with 100 gold coloured beads and 100 silver coloured beads. Gradually, as they move down the circle, the gold and silver beads are exchanged between bottles, until right at the bottom the contents have swapped over completely. This is an idea for an object that is very much jointly owned: between the museum collection and the private commissioner. There is a ‘pool’ of components, and at any one time each party is in possession of exactly half of the components. The private commissioner would be entitled to visit the museum collection and swap a given number of components at designated intervals, and the whole relationship would need its own legally binding agreement.

a shared collection of jewellery for exchange

sketch for exchange piece