All HS posts

All HS Posts

All HS posts

LATESTS blog posts

Finding Fire

by Fran Carter | June 23, 2024 | Fran Carter, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Finding Fire As it goes sometimes, I’ve been finding it challenging to connect to my creative pathway this year. It has been like trying to find the signposts at the start of the walking track, only to realize there are none, and what awaits me is a sickle and the realization that the only way forward is through. I don’t know what’s in front of me, I have to trust my intuition to cut through...

Justene Williams

by Louise Hill | June 17, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Justene Williams, is an contemporary Australian artist who makes her large-scale immersive works, using multi-channel video installations, photography and performance. Through challenging social norms, using of found objects and waste materials, collage and photomontage she work draws on Dadaist principles of to create sensory and layered experiences.

Ana Mendieta

by Louise Hill | June 16, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Ana Mendieta was born in Cuba in 1948. Her father, Ignacio Mendieta, was a lawyer who had worked with the FBI during World War II. In 1960 he became involved in an uprising against Fidel Castro and was concerned for the safety of his family. At 12, Ana Mendieta and her older sister were sent to the United States alongside as 14,000 other Cuban children, via a secret program run by Catholic...

Pōhutukawa play

by Nellie Peoples | June 14, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

At the last catch up that I had with my mentor, Neke Moa, she gave me an exercise to help expand my material knowledge. For this exercise I focused on pōhutukawa timber. I had briefly introduced myself to the material with my previous hand carved timber form studies. For this part of the exercise I was to formally introduce myself to the material. This exercise came at the perfect time. I was...

Judy Chicago

by Louise Hill | June 12, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

When Judy Chicago was a student at UCLA in the late 1950s, she took a class called "Intellectual History or Europe," where her male professor declared that women had made zero contributions to European history. Aware of how little Chicago to start what would become a lifelong passion to find the incredible women of history and art that had long been systematically overlocked by patriarchal...

Hannah Wilke

by Louise Hill | June 9, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Hannah Wilke was among the first Artists to incorporate vaginal imagery into her work. During the 1970s, she used her own body to create "performalist self-portraits." Her work "S.O.S. – Starification Object Series" from 1974 to 1982, critiqued the commodification of women's bodies. During performances, she collected chewed gum from the audience, shaping it into vulva-like sculptures and...

Carolee Schneemann

by Louise Hill | June 8, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Anthony McCall, thirteen photographs of Carolee Schneemann, Interior Scroll, 1975. Stockholm: Moderna Museet. © Carolee Schneemann. Photo: Estate of Carolee Schneemann/Galerie Lelong & Co./Hales Gallery/PPOW Gallery. Challenging the way that women's Art was systematically reduced and dismissed by the patriarchal structures in the Art world, Carolee Shneeman performed her piece Interior...

Yoko Ono

by Louise Hill | June 6, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Judy (Judith Darragh, my handshake mentor), has suggested I take a look at a series of performance Artists who deal with the body and a piece that I find meaningful. I am starting with the incredible Yoko Ono. Ono's work often questioned the division between art and the everyday. She fought against her own perfectionism by creating works and asking viewers finish it in their own...

To wash or not to wash?

by Fiona Frew | June 5, 2024 | Fiona Few, Sample | 0 Comments

It might seem like a weird question to consider but something that I puzzle over is whether or not to clean the materials (at the moment found rubbish objects and things) that I am currently working with. For some people this is probably not a question that they would struggle answering - its seems obvious to wash these things as they are and can be pretty dirty. But here are some of the things...

Starting Again – Almost

by Lisa van Hulst | May 30, 2024 | Handshake8, Lisa van Hulst | 0 Comments

Suddenly it is almost June! I have had three sessions now with my mentor, Manon van Kouswijk. She has been insightful and generous. Suggesting exercises to help loosen up my practice and allow space for the unexpected. After our last meeting, she pointed out that my work is - all over the place. My words, not hers. She is much more kind and diplomatic than that but I got the gist and know she is...

Balancing Act

by Nellie Peoples | May 30, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

Since the beginning of the year I have placed metal aside, for the moment, to explore other materials I have come across in my explorations. On my walks I have been collecting timber, driftwood, stones and shells. I began by focusing on timbers. I have worked with timber before, but sporadically and I am not sure my timber bread box I made at school 20 years ago counts. I took this as an...

A Small But Mighty Tool

by Rachael Chapman | May 28, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman | 0 Comments

Our current group of online workshops with Estela Saez, are geared towards figuring out new ways to show our work via film. As someone who grew up pre-internet and mobile phone, I'm still wowed by how much our phones and laptops can achieve. https://youtu.be/A_v8Y5XoYxA?si=AMyk6WZ7Y029ijWj Recording audio on my phone from you tube…perhaps comes across an an amateur move but honestly, sometimes I...

earth meditation

by Tui Diprose | May 27, 2024 | Handshake8, Tūī Diprose | 0 Comments

A reflection on earth by John O'Donohue Let us bless The imagination of the earth. That knew early the patience To harness the mind of time, Waited for the seas to warm, Ready to welcome the emergence Of things dreaming and voyaging Among the stillness of land, And how light knew to nurse The growth until the face of the earth Brightens beneath a vision of colour. When the ages of ice...

Rules Required?

by Fiona Frew | May 23, 2024 | Fiona Few, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

As part of the Handshake 8 journey, we have jewellery history lectures from the wonderful Andrea Daly, New Zealand Jeweller and educationalist. As part of a homework task, Daly required us to think about the unwritten rules of contemporary jewellery, consider our own rules that we abide by for our own jewellery practices and then make a work that breaks one of our rules. My first brainstorm was...

67206 Days, 2276 Full Moons (last days)

by admin | May 2, 2024 | Curation, Curation Stanley Street, Exhibition, HS alumnus, News | 0 Comments

April 10 – May 4, 2024 The jewellery artists featured in this NZ exhibition contemplate themes of discovery, origins, integration, and conflict. Becky Bliss Nadene Carr Alpha Cheesman Nina van Duijnhoven Neke Moa Mia Straka Caroline Thomas Sarah Walker-Holt Raewyn Walsh

All aboard the Mentor-ship

by Nellie Peoples | April 30, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

Whoever wrote the proverb “never meet your [creative] heroes”, obviously had never met Neke Moa. She is my mentor this year for Handshake8. I will not recite the incredible things that Neke has created, exhibited and taught, but I would redirect, and recommend, you to read Neke's Handshake Project webpage here. Below are images from Neke's latest exhibition "Ngā tirohanga whānui a Parehuia",...

Opening 67206 Days, 2276 Moons

by admin | April 10, 2024 | Curation, HS alumnus, News | 0 Comments

Please join us for the opening Saturday 13 April 3-at 5 pm of 67206 days, 2276 full moons, these numbers mark the time since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi...so who’s counting? Nine New Zealand artists from the Handshake Project with the support of Creative New Zealand and in partnership with Stanley Street Gallery present this powerful and thought-provoking exhibition.

My shoes were wet. The tide was changing. We had run out of time.

by Nellie Peoples | April 10, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

I found myself amidst the rocks and seaweed and lapping waves of Karaka Bay following a prompt from Andrea Daly in our History and Theory classes for Handshake 8. We were asked to think about the rules that surround the field of Contemporary Jewellery and in so doing we were to ponder the rules that each of us have around our individual arts practices and making processes. For me, the...

The colours of tarnish

by Nellie Peoples | March 26, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

We have had yet another wonderfully thought provoking prompt from Andrea Daly’s Theory and History lecture. We were asked to observe something inanimate over a couple of weeks. We were to pay attention, to see how the inanimate thing changes and evolves, also how it might impact on things around it. I felt like the best chance I had to succeed in dedicated observation was if I carried the thing...

Neo-Animism

by Tui Diprose | March 22, 2024 | Handshake8, Tūī Diprose | 0 Comments

Dream Journal A handwritten note is passed to me. Inside it says, "I would like to sit and drink tea with you, Sir." \\ Animism (from Latin: anima meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all...

of late.

by Tui Diprose | March 21, 2024 | Handshake8, Tūī Diprose | 0 Comments

It’s been six months here in Te Wai Pounamu, nestled in the mountains, rivers and lakes (and... sheep, cows, dogs, horses, hawks and ten million hares). Most of the time I’m just doing life, trying not to let overwhelm submerge me, leaning in to gratitude and threads of inspiration. I spent the beginning of this year learning about the Akashic Records, interwoven with making, jobs and Summer. A...

Fun with Film Editing

by Rachael Chapman | March 19, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman | 0 Comments

It's been a really interesting couple of weeks. Part of me is missing the bench and making actual physical art, the other part is quite the nerd and loves the dabble; figuring out creative ways to express ideas through film making. Obviously, I’m a novice and these early attempts may well make me cringe in years to come - but the incremental learning is so satisfying and thanks to the...

67206 Days, 2276 Full Moons

by Peter Deckers | March 16, 2024 | Curation, Curation Stanley Street, Exhibition, HS alumnus, News | 0 Comments

NEW EXHIBITION at Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney 67206 Days, 2276 Full Moons April 10 - May 4, 2024 Becky Bliss, Nadene Carr, Aphra Cheesman, Nina van Duijnhoven, Neke Moa, Mia Straka, Caroline Thomas, Sarah Walker-Holt and Raewyn Walsh The NZ jewellery artists featured in this exhibition contemplate themes of discovery, origins, integration, transformation, virtue, cultural respect,...

Books, books, books

by Nellie Peoples | March 13, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

In the Handshake 8 journey we have recently begun our Contemporary Jewellery History and Theory classes with the incredible Andrea Daly. It has been wonderful to stretch my brain in the theory space in a much more focused way. One of our first projects for the class was to think about what themes and ideas we explore within our work. Through my practice there have been some themes that seem to...

Tick tock… you don’t stop,

by Louise Hill | February 24, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

I’ve read that as an artist, you should just never stop making. Then you don’t have to start again. An art practice needs to be practiced. …but I stopped for summer. Life happens, school holidays happen and here we are, end of February, getting started again. When I look backwards, there are starting points everywhere. What worked well with my last body of work? (I purposely decided to focus...

The Irrelevance of Truth in Times Like These

by Rachael Chapman | February 21, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman | 0 Comments

In this post-truth era of intentional misinformation ….I’ve been having a little ponder over ‘memory truth’, and how each persons memory of a situation or object is filtered through the lens of personal experience. Therefore, the truth of a situation is arbitrary, and perspective dependant. Obviously that is different when compared to the vile fake-fact/ intentional misinformation antics so...

Northward bound

by Nellie Peoples | February 20, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

I have had such a spectacular beginning to the year. There have been adventuring through Northland over a 10 day period. It was a time full of exploring, hiking and, when I could, collecting. On the trip I took almost 2000 images of everything and anything that caught my eye. Each place that we stopped was so uniquely different. It was my first time travelling that far north. I loved seeing how...

Starting the Year off on a Musical Note

by Rachael Chapman | February 15, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman | 0 Comments

Cor blimey what a roller coaster this one has been. Song writing: These words come to mind… Cathartic Intense Exposing Vulnerable Enriching Expelling An owning of fears An evolving discussion I’ve finally had the guts to add music to my practice. It such a big part of who I am, and this year I wanted to bring my whole self to the party. I’d really missed the process of music creation over...

An Art Practice is a Calling, not a Job

by Rachael Chapman | January 23, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman, Sample | 0 Comments

Like most Handshake8 participants, after our exhibition in November 2023, I was wiped out and needed a break from the constant problem solving and long hours of the preceding year…it was great for a week, but by the following Sunday I was bored, cranky, and in need of a project. Around that time, Peter Deckers send through an email which included something along the lines of "remember, our art...

Reflections of 2023

by Nellie Peoples | December 17, 2023 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

The Proof of Concept exhibition marks the halfway point of my 2 year Handshake 8 journey. It has been such an incredible, yet busy year. I have loved every moment of the last 12 months being a part of the program. Through the Handshake Project I have found an incredible creative community, which has been vital in moving my arts practice forward. As a maker with a studio space at home the...