Dear Blog,
Firstly, apologies I have been slack on posting since our Handshake6 exhibition in October/November last year. My life has settled with a new home since then and this is my commitment that I will be better!
Before moving forward I want to share my perspective on our 2020 end of year exhibition at Te Auaha in Wellington: Signing In. This was our half way point and first official Handshake6 exhibition showing progress to date. As we closer to the show date I began to feel anxious as it became apparent many of our group of 12 were showing at least reasonably resolved jewellery works.
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I definitely was in process, wrapping branches in colours coded to document my days and months leading up.
Although I find looking at process works and experiments by other artists fascinating, often even more so than resolved works; showing my own experiments in a gallery before I could know where they were going or even if they were leading to something I would take forward, was terrifying.
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However it was alright on the night, installing over two days with our fabulous team of 12 plus Peter, Hilda and ace installer Vernon Brown, created a supportive environment. Our display crew had come up with a system involving rolls of brown paper, which we sent around the country and to Melbourne so we had time to experiment with how our work would sit.
The exhibition came together as a visual whole successfully, 12 different styles, formats, materials and concepts bound by our shared experience, good communication and brown paper strips.
Figuring out how to make my branches grow horizontally out into the space was challenging but with some home prep and Vernon’s help we pulled it off. Seeing my work displayed in the gallery environment with 3D experiments alongside the data drawings, helped me reflect on the work and see it in relationship as a group.
Feedback from our salubrious audience was valuable and reassuring. I was left mulling over how I might begin to translate the more emotive aspects of my drawings into 3D, plus topped up energetically from getting to spend time together working and catching up with fellow Hand Shakers.
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Thanks for reading, next up CHAINreaction at the inaugural Nelson Jewellery Week 2021.