Kyosun Jung (b. 1984) studied silversmithing, goldsmithing and jewellery at the University for the Creative Arts, Rochester, from 2011 to 2014. Her awareness of medals began in 2013 during her second year at Rochester, when she won a prize for a design for a silver medal in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council craftsmanship and design awards competition, an annual national competition for the silversmithing, goldsmithing, jewellery and allied crafts profession and the educational sector. In the same year her medal, Ivory Exploitation, won the Pangolin Editions prize in the BAMS Student Medal Project; this piece was shown at the FIDEM exhibition in Sofia in 2014. She was selected as BAMS New Medallist for 2014-15, enabling her to travel to Bulgaria to study with Professor Bogomil Nikolov. Her mentor during the year was Danuta Solowiej.
About her BAMS medal, Endangered Rainforest, she writes: ‘The devastation of the rainforest is represented by a plant on one side and the danger to animal life by a red-eyed tree frog on the reverse. The majority of the world’s five thousand plus frog species are found in tropical forests. The Central American rain forest canopy teems with red-eyed tree frogs, a species that relies on bold coloration for survival. Frogs have historically been an indicator species, evidence of an ecosystem’s health or its impending vulnerability. Not surprisingly, the world’s amphibian population has experienced a decline in recent years; research indicates that factors include chemical contamination from pesticide use, acid rain and fertilizers, the introduction of foreign predators, and increased UV-B exposure from a weakened ozone layer that may damage fragile eggs. Though the red-eyed tree frog itself is not endangered, its rainforest home is under constant threat. I hope that my Endangered Rainforest medal can inspire people to act to help conserve their precious habitats.’