A tour of the exhibition Handshake7 – 12 New Zealand Jewellers, which invites contemplation and offers a window to contemporary jewellery happening in the South Pacific within the four-story, architecturally renovated gallery spaces at Gallery Marzee in Nijmegen, Netherlands until the 11th of February 2023.
The pursuit of efficiency will drain your life of meaning* series, 2022
*Oliver Burkeman, Sam Harris podcast #289 Time management for mortals approx 22:29 minutes
I’m interested in how we experience, value and record time. As a social medium adornment has the potential to act as catalyst, conduit and communicator in this realm.
I invited friends and associates to document an average day and a perfect day in a circular diagram format.
This data was then digitally rendered as a radar chart, determining the shape of each work in the series.
This series honours time and creativity with a collaborative and regenerative approach to adornment making.
Made as part of the year long Handshake7 project in 2022, full blog post and more images here
The Handshake Project 2020-2022
September 2020,
Adornment/object from 2022, bamboo, wood, enamel paint, brass, nylon coated braided steel wire, dye
Still from Passiton video
See my jewellery adventures over 2020-2022 at Handshake6
See my current work in process at Handshake7
Chain Reaction, Refinery Art Space, Nelson
Many hands make light work | Know like the back of your hand | Put your hands together | Cold hands warm heart | Show of hands | Dab hand | First Hand | Hand in hand | Hands on | Heavy handed | Old hand | Out of hand | Under hand | Change hands | Hand over | Hands full | Hands tied | In safe hands | Try your hand | Hands down | Second hand | In good hands | Helping hand | On hand | Get your hands dirty | Hand over fist | On the other hand | In your hands
The brief for CHAINreaction was to make a chain which would connect into a series of 49 chains, celebrating 10 years of the Handshake project and artists involved, each of us was responsible for the linking connection to our righthand neighbouring chain. This was a timely invitation to step back into making work that could function both as adornment or object.
Key concepts I wanted to express included interconnectivity, collectivity and a desire to celebrate the precious impermanence of life in these weird times. In response to being part of the HandShake6 team I was drawn to exploring the form of the hand as our tools for making, medium for touch, sign and gesture.
I made two of these bamboo ‘hands’ which connect together as a chain, with a hand at each end and can be worn or configured in multiple ways. Bamboo attracted me for it’s plentiful weedy growth, bony form and tubular structure. The movement of the joints was an important element to me. To invoke a sense of jointed fingers rather than being too floppy I burred out concave curves in the bamboo ends to accommodate the round beads and strung the work on braided steel wire rather for some additional flex.
Signing In, Te Auaha, Wellington
SIGNING IN reflects the participants’ work as a group since the start of their HS6 mentorship and marks the halfway point of their two-year journey.
Here you will see an emphasis on process as much as ‘finished’ work, an opportunity to catch a glimpse of ideas in their nascent phase, with many options and opportunities yet to emerge.
Schmetterlinge Rising, Allpress studio, Auckland
New solo show in Auckland City 8-19 July, opening night 9 July 5:30-7:30pm all welcome!
This exhibition is led by ideas of transformation, reusing/reconstructing waste materials and disused objects to create adornment for the Anthropocene. Jewellery and objects made during last year’s artist residency in Berlin are juxtaposed with work made with the same ethos back in NZ, informed by an intuitive response to environment and personal experience.
Schmetterlinge translates as butterflies, referring to the massive changes required imminently as a global community moving towards environmental sustainability, adapting to mass population movements and climate change.
Despite the heaviness of both historical context and our current precipitous position, the work displays a wry sense of humour and colourful outbursts, finding my own ways to move forward with joy and wonder at life and the power of nature to overcome, one way or the other.
Thanks to Allpress Press Studio, Thornbury Wines and Workshop6 for your wonderful support.
Images thanks to Liz Clarkson Photography