Not So Sad Anymore

Trophy commission 2018

The trophy specifically responds to Lin’s brooch Slightly Sad. Lin’s piece is a reaction to the political situation in the United Kingdom around 2018, as it moved toward Brexit. Slightly Sad symbolizes how the European Union lost a star from its flag.

At the time of the commission, the EU still officially consisted of 28 member states, although theoretically, it already had 27. From all these ‘theoretical’ countries, Virág Motesiczky invited people to sent Lin a handwritten greeting along with a button by post, as a gesture of support and protest.

For the brooch, Virág Motesiczky collected 27 star shaped garment buttons that mimic the traditional characteristics of a pin badge, refering to the European flag. The visual appearance and the combined elements of the brooch also refer to the phenomena of how garment buttons evolved into badges. The formal and functional evolution through history shows a clear timeline between the merge of the needle and the button. This tiny ornament​ ​(button) represents cultural classification, crafts, industrial revolution and loud political statements, even if the ‘human’ size of it makes its existence highly concentrated.

The brooch Not So Sad Anymore​ is a collection of 27 star shaped garment buttons that mimics the traditional characteristics of a pin badge. The visual appearance and the combined elements are also referring to the phenomena how garment buttons evolved into badges. The formal and functional evolution through history shows a clear timeline between the merge of the needle and the button. This tiny ornament​ ​(button) represents cultural classification, crafts, industrial revolution and loud political statements, even if the ‘human’ size of it makes its existence highly concentrated.