„Exhibited Secrets: Sentimental Jewelry as a Medium of Death and Intimacy“ by Lin Xin
Wir laden Sie herzlich zum Vortrag „Exhibited Secrets: Sentimental Jewelry as a Medium of Death and Intimacy“ von Lin Xin am Dienstag, den 18.11.2025, um 18 Uhr in der Artilleriestraße 70, Raum 00.112 ein.
We are inviting you to the presentation „Exhibited Secrets: Sentimental Jewelry as a Medium of Death and Intimacy“ by Lin Xin in Artilleriestraße 70, room 00.112 at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 18.11.2025.
This talk defines sentimental jewelry as a medium that connects death and intimacy. Historically, it revisits Victorian death culture and traces later discourses surrounding sentimental jewelry; analytically, it explores how the concept helps articulate mediated death and the memory of loss. Across these layers, the materiality, indexicality, and modes of display—as “exhibited secrets” (Christiane Holm), ranging from hairwork to miniature portraits—reveal how mourning and intimacy are negotiated through material objects. Sentimental jewelry is marked by a double fragility, namely material and meaning, as well as by a value rooted in these fragilities and in intimacy rather than in price. The paper closes with the Chinese notion of Nianxiang 念想 as a cross-cultural lens.
Speaker LIN Xin
Doctoral Student, Department of Politics & Xueheng Institute for Advanced Studies, Nanjing University