CHAINreaction has been a really nice chance to focus on connections, community and solidarity, and to applaud the legacy of the Handshake project and all Peter and Hilda have given over the last ten years- I am so disappointed not to be there to share in the celebrations at the exhibition opening. Bravo Peter and Hilda!- I’m so proud to be a part of the Handshake project and be part of the legacy you have created.
That this project and celebration will be part of a Nelson Jewellery Week that will actually be open to the public reminds us how lucky we are here in New Zealand. But not just in relation to the ongoing effects of Covid throughout the world. A lot of my recent focus has been on other parts of the world which are enduring upheavals beyond the pandemic. Countries like Syria, Hong Kong, Yemen, Ethiopia, Belarus and Myanmar. Countries whose plights go largely unmentioned on the 6 o’clock news.
It was thinking about events around the world when making my chain for CHAINreaction. I’ve called it ‘Heavy Metal’ because of its initial visual appearance; that of a heavy metal chain. Perhaps not dissimilar to a barricade used against protesters in one of many cities worldwide today…
I think too of ‘heavy metals’, and the connotations of toxicity and commination that are largely hidden, beneath the ground, and which are a source of environmental harm. For those in Dunedin, the stratospheric levels of lead recently recorded in our water supply may also come to mind… That these effects go largely unnoticed reminds me of the multitude of conflicts around the world, which are, in their own ways, hidden in plain sight…
I henceforth made my necklace from somewhat fragile materials- cardboard and foam. The appearance of solidity and strength gives way to fragility. It seems to encapsulate the state of things for me – a world seemingly resilient and durable, but when viewed in its entirety, is unstable, in conflict and a place of great suffering for millions of people. It sounds bleak, but that is the truth and the reality. It is hard to accept and it is hard to know what one can do. But maybe that is part of art’s purpose- to try and shine a light on these issues, to try and bring attention to them, and promote compassion, empathy and care for those less privileged than ourselves. For when refugees come seeking asylum for instance, let us remember from where they came and the conditions they have likely endured…
I was drawn to a poem by William Butler Yeats. Called ‘The Second Coming’ it was written in the wake of the First World War. The first stanza reads thus-
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
