Ayesha Sureya Jewellery

Ayesha Sureya is a jewellery artist that turns deities into jewellery and vice versa. The jewellery collection that she describes as pieces of fragmented selves, is crafted in reverence to the dichotomy of her diasporic identity, myths, history and longing for alternative realities. Her work explores the parallels between the world and the self, weaving mirages of stories around the formality of adornment and the narrative of objects and symbols in a colonial world.

Having been brought up around religious ideologies but slowly disconnecting from them as she grew wiser to the oppressive complexities of Hinduism; it was only when she studied Jewellery Design at Central St. Martins, did she enlighten her connection to her roots through the pieces she made. Since graduating in 2018 her work has encompassed costume, textiles and technology where the subject of jewellery informs her language as an Artist - working on and from the body - transcending craft.

The ancient Vedas, written in Sanskrit allude to their gods as Devas, meaning celestial and benevolent beings also referred to as the ‘shining ones’. In Ayesha’s surrealist body of wearable metal pieces, ‘Devas’ each one is born from the iconography and cosmologies presented around Asian deities and their physical forms - mirroring the jewellery and name itself. Ayesha tells us her middle name - Sureya - is derived from the god of Sun and light, Surya, so it's no coincidence she feels compelled to illustrate this mythic connection.

Ayesha returned to London in July, fresh off the back of a six month adventure of wander around India - connecting with artisanal masterminds there - where she also shot the Devas collection with photographer Ritika Singh. Shot with the rising sun, they collectively produced a series of ethereal photographs that frame overlapping, shining bodies as they dance on the vast landscapes of the Indian Ocean. The photos are tinged with inspirations derived from old Indian chromolithographs from India's colonial era, which historically helped to democratize depictions of Hindu cosmologies.

Made through digital formations, each jewel is evidence of a creative synthesis of ancient drawings with modern techniques - creating a new mythology that enables us to interact and relate to a world remote from us. Combined with this is a sense of haptic healing portrayed through the simulation of touch - mimicked through the Mudras as sacred hand gestures adorning the body.

Devas was exhibited at the Goldsmiths Hall in London last year and her work has been featured in publications like British Vogue, Hunger Magazine, The British Fashion Council and Azeema Magazine and her pieces had been worn by music artists like Raveena Aurora, Joy Crookes and BEABADOOBEE.

Ayesha is currently completing the DeBeers Scholarship at Morley college in London where she is developing and expanding her Devas collection through the exploration of metal-smithing techniques and fine details. She plans to showcase the new realizations in an immersive world next year!