Annelies Nuy is currently developing Post-Colonial Gold, a research project at the intersection of art, fashion, and value systems.
The project examines the shift of gold from a carrier of meaning in pre-colonial cultures to its current role as an economic instrument embedded within systems of power, ownership, and global distribution.
In pre-colonial contexts, gold functioned within spiritual, social, and relational systems. During colonial expansion, this meaning was replaced by a model based on extraction, accumulation, and control.
Post-Colonial Gold makes this shift explicit and places the historical meaning of gold in contrast with another understanding of value.
From gold to meaning
Where gold once represented connection, ritual, and collective meaning, it was reduced within the colonial system to ownership and power.
Post-Colonial Gold shifts this logic.
The series consists of wearable sculptures — rings that function as small, portable archives.
Each object operates as an interface: a point where body, material, and meaning intersect.
It carries a value and makes visible what has been obscured within dominant fashion systems.
These objects do not remain within the exhibition space.
They are worn.
In the public domain, they function as a visible statement — a shift from fashion as decoration to fashion as a carrier of meaning.
Here, fashion becomes a language again.
Pre- and post-colonial
The project distinguishes between:
- pre-colonial → gold as a relational and spiritual material
- colonial → gold as an economic and extractive instrument
- post-colonial → gold as a carrier of history and reinterpretation
These layers coexist and are brought into relation within the work.
Mesh and suppression
During the research, it became clear that not only material value has shifted, but also knowledge.
The project developed as a form of mesh communication: a network in which different artistic voices are brought into dialogue.
Within this structure, it also became visible how female knowledge and skills have been structurally suppressed within colonial and religious systems.
Visual language and reference
The image on the flyer refers to historical representations of female collectivity, such as in the work of Judy Chicago, but is deliberately reinterpreted for the present.
The focus shifts toward bodies and voices that have long been excluded from dominant narratives.
Why now
The question of value is once again urgent.
In a world where systems of power and control continue to dominate, the limitations of these models become increasingly visible.
The renewed attention to female perspectives and skills is not a trend, but a necessary shift.
An alternative model
Post-Colonial Gold is presented as an immersive exhibition, developed in collaboration with Anasaea.
This format offers an alternative to traditional art fairs and closed systems, which often remain physically and economically inaccessible.
The exhibition functions as a sustainable and accessible model, in which content can move beyond fixed locations.
Milano as a moment
The launch takes place during New Directions at MIART Milano
April 17–19, 2026
This moment marks a beginning.
Towards the future
What happens when we look at what remains?
Can fragments of the past open a different future?
Redefining value
Post-Colonial Gold does not represent value.
It repositions it.
From ownership to position | From material to meaning | From system to relation.
Launch during 'New Directions' MIART Milano
17–19 April 2026
