Caio Mahin
he/they
Caio Mahin (Recife, 1991) is a Brasilian queer artist based in Idar-Oberstein (Germany). They majored in Design by the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brasil), with a CAPES sandwich scholarship at Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), where they were first introduced to Contemporary Jewelry. After that, Caio completed the course of jewelry at ArCo (Portugal), having their thesis project supported by Tereza Seabra Scholarship, with which they were invited to intern at Atelier Tanel Veenre (Estonia) in 2020, and later to the 2021 Designers in Residence program at Emma Kreativzentrum Pforzheim (Germany). Caio has participated in many exhibitions throughout Portugal and Europe and is currently a master student at the Gemstones and Jewellery department of Trier University Campus Idar-Oberstein.
"My first experiences with jewelry were violent. A memory: Growing up in Northeast Brasil as a queer child, once I told my parents I wanted to pierce my ears. In a dilemma with his internalized homophobia, my father’s response was to go outside and look for the sharpest thing he could find - a rusty hand size garden rake - and then to tell me he himself would pierce me. It became clear that the feminine aura of jewelry was dangerous to me.
Of course I stuck with my plan and got the left ear pierced. In fact, during the next couple of years I had that same spot pierced several times before the hole would finally heal open. Looking back, I wonder how grand of a need for adornment I had that made me repeat such treatment to my body until I finally got what I wanted--openness."
“I wonder if queerphoria could mean the opposite of body dysmorphia or gender dysphoria because all I can think about is the joy I used to feel as a kid when snicking into my mother's closet to try on her jewelry and makeup. Looking at myself in the mirror and finding me was easily possible by ornamenting my body and still today when I present this body to the world I am the most happy when I feel validation and safety to show who I am.”
What does [queerphoria] mean to you? This can be something felt, experienced, or made.
Venus (Brooch) / Burnt clay, crockery doll and alpaca / 8.6 cm x 4 cm x 5 cm / Pictures by Pierre Primetens / 2020
“It means a lot. When making jewelry, first I often find myself driven towards objects that are cracked, stained, broken or uneven because those features give them narrative, character and should be displayed as unique and precious. Secondly, I tend to work frequently with materials I can sculpt by subtracting or reshaping such as wood, stone, wax and clay - giving me agency and pleasure when telling my story. Both these processes are very resembling of what queer folk experiment with our own identities and thus it is no coincidence that the human shape is so present in my work.”
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
“Both.”
Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
Venus (Brooch) detail / Burnt clay, crockery doll and alpaca / 8.6 cm x 4 cm x 5 cm / Pictures by Pierre Primetens / 2020
“I am a self-referential artist, which means that everything I do comes from a place of self-narration and, in my case, I try to deal with some traumas in the way. With that said, sometimes I can get lost in the question: is it my practice that plays a role in my identity or is it my identity that plays a role in my practice? On the other hand, because jewelry is a medium that depends on the body, many times our own bodies can play a big role in this dynamic. For example, my decision to have both ears pierced came from the need to see how my creations fit when I am alone in the studio. At the same time, jewelry is a great tool of self expression, so wearing my own creations becomes a way of composing my identity.”
What role does your studio practice play in your identity- if at all?
“Absolutely. I believe that the viewer, the beholder, is where jewelry takes place. By wearing a piece of jewelry, the wearer produces meaning that is only finalized in the eyes of the viewer and that effect is what the jewelry artists should be aiming for. Jewelry is about community symbols, interactions, it depends on the combination between an object and a given body, with all of its individualities and subjectivities, but the wearer can never be completely aware of what effect this combination is making outwards.
From a queer perspective, said combination is a tool to create speeches of power and identification. Jewelry can be used to force confrontation to social norms, but most importantly reinvent possibilities.”
When creating your work, do you consider the relationship your object has with the viewer?
We All Have Jewels In Between Our Legs (Pendant) / Jacaranda wood,
river pearls, silver 950 and silk thread / 53 cm x 2.5 cm x 2 cm / Pictures by Pierre Primetens / 2020
“I am a big fan of horror movies. I think they can tell a lot about our society because monsters are but reflections of social fear and often carry symbols of disruption of morals and norms. The witch, the vampire, the Frankenstein monster, etc., these are all representations of sexual, gender and racial empowerment portrayed in a manner to push outcasts under the scope of evil or wrong. It is not surprising that queer folks are so frequently attracted to those narratives.”
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We All Have Jewels In Between Our Legs (Pendant) detail