About Artist
Christine Lagdamen is a contemporary artist whose practice explores curiosity, movement and the ways we engage with the world beyond systems of reward. Having spent much of her life immersed in physical activity, both in the bustling city of London and the rural landscape of her birthplace, in the Philippines, she has developed a strong awareness of the body in motion. This sensitivity is translated through her jewellery practice.
Each environment has shaped her understanding of freedom, structure, and social interaction in different ways. Moving between rural and urban spaces has made play central to her identity, fostering adaptability while also making it difficult to feel fully ‘at home’ in any single mode of play.
Statement
After School is a collection of earrings centred on the idea of play: an essential and intrinsic part of how we understand the world. The work communicates the emotional value of play and nostalgia, functioning as a wearable reminder of memory, imagination, and joy. It also challenges the notion that play is something we outgrow. These pieces are not only worn but felt – containers of the past and commentaries of the present.
The collection draws heavily on the visual language of children's playgrounds, spaces designed for exploration, movement, and imagination without the pressure of outcome or reward. Through this work, Lagdamen investigates the importance of being motivated by curiosity rather than external validation. In childhood, play is instinctive, driven by the desire to discover. This collection reconnects with that mindset and considers how it might continue to exist within an artistic practice.
Experiencing both rural and urban environments has made play inseparable from her identity. Moving between these worlds has made her more adaptable but has also lefther feeling unable to belong fully to a single way of playing. For this reason, childhood is not a one-time reflection in her practice but something she returns to repeatedly. These memories remain active and unresolved, continuing to shape how she understands creativity, learning and human connection.
Nostalgia becomes a creative tool through which she focuses on the essence of childhood play. It invites viewers to reconsider the value of curiosity and to reflect on how the impulse to explore can return us to more intuitive ways of thinking and interacting.
Working primarily with wire, Lagdamen allows the material to carry meaning through its behaviour as much as through form. She does not impose symbolism on the material; instead, its physical properties mirror her experience. Twisted wire brings separate strands together into a unified form without erasing their individuality. Different wire thicknesses suggest different environments and memories. Some strands remain partially untwisted, as though slipping apart or resisting resolution. Areas where the twist tightens or loosens reflect shifts in emotional intensity and the instability of memory.
The act of twisting itself is central to the work. The resistance felt in the hands, the tension held in the material, and the possibility of over-twisting to the point of breakage all parallel the way memory and nostalgia operate. Through this process, forms emerge that feel natural and spontaneous. This evolving technique has become central to her making, mirroring the nature of play itself: unpredictable, responsive, and in constant transformation. The resulting works reference the physical structures of playgrounds while also capturing something more intangible- the energy, freedom and curiosity that define playful experience.
