The Chandelier of Lost Earrings was initially stimulated by a collaboration with staff at St Mary’s Maternity Unit (at Central Manchester University Hospitals), where staff were asked to donate lone earrings, which had formerly been a pair, and which had some emotional resonance or significance for the wearer.

A successful press and social media campaign followed, gathering in many thousands of earrings over 12 months. The act of individuals contributing something of personal value, towards a communal project to form something new, found strong resonance amongst hundreds of people (in the main women) locally, nationally and internationally.

“The earring I am enclosing was given to me by one of my sons … to match the necklace my husband bought to wear at my Ruby Wedding in 2004 when we went on our first cruise to celebrate – a very special memory.”

Earring Donor

Earrings were gifted to the project alongside a few written words about the personal significance of the earrings. The sculpture itself comes to represent many individual stories woven together into one object heavy with meaning and significance for those who took part.

It drips with glittering jewels, delicate threads of fine chain cascade down the curvaceous structure and close-up the individual earrings form a detailed textured surface made out of the myriad of small forms in every colour.

ARTISTS: Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell

Images: Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell