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Aotearoa Exchange

by admin | February 6, 2026 | Curation, HS alumnus, News | 0 Comments

Aotearoa Exchange group performed a unique presentation that opened SCHMUCKmuenchen 2026 at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, on Friday, 6 March. The project brought together more than forty wearable works by twenty Handshake Project alumni artists. Six performers moved through the space, shaping live, shifting encounters between the audience and the work. The presentation offered a live,...

Aotearoa Exchange

by admin | January 15, 2026 | Collaboration, Curation, HS alumnus, News | 0 Comments

Aotearoa Exchange is presented and performed by Mia Straka, Jessica Winchcombe, Grace Yu Piper, Hilda Gascard, Lisa van Hulst, and Peter Deckers on Fr 06 March 2026, at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. The project brings more than forty wearable works by HANDSHAKE alumni artists into active conversation, including pieces from Vanessa Arthur, Becky Bliss, Denise Callan, Nadene Carr, Aphra...

Reflecting on 2 years of Handshake 8

by Rachael Chapman | March 23, 2025 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman, Sample | 0 Comments

It’s so nice to have this blog space to expand on the creative thoughts around this project. So often we are limited to a certain word-count for artist statements. For the record, that’s not a complaint - concise statements have their place, but I think 2 years of work necessitates a little more than 150 words to explain. Reflecting on how far I’ve come…It seems a long way from the first class...

MINUMENTAL

by admin | November 25, 2024 | Collaboration, Exhibition, Handshake6, News | 0 Comments

ex HS6 artists presented their group exhibition MINUMENTAL at Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne as part of the Radiant Pavilion Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennale 2024. Following its debut at Nelson Jewellery Week (Aotearoa) in 2023, this second iteration of MINUMENTAL delves into the profound significance found in the small, often overlooked details of daily life. Featuring works by...

Stitches and Stones

by Grace Yu Piper | November 13, 2024 | Grace Yu Piper, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

When I began my handshake journey I was a stone carver. I love the materiality of stone and its connection to the natural world. I gravitate towards reductive ways of working and enjoy the meditative process of carving. I’ve always been a forager and I love rock hounding. I’ve spent countless hours combing the beaches and rivers of Aotearoa. Some finds I use as material for making work and some...

SINCERELY YOURS

by Denise Callan | November 7, 2024 | Denise Callan, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Sincerely Yours is the last in a what has become a three part series. It began with an exploration of identity and our human need for belonging, through my initial work titled Dear Public. Last year, as my work developed for our first handshake show, I realised what I as creating was a continuation rather than something new. Dear Maker became part two of a decidedly introspective series. A...

Bodies of Water

by Tui Diprose | November 7, 2024 | Handshake8, Tūī Diprose | 0 Comments

To heal; heal the waters. My work through HANDSHAKE8 explores themes of talisman, place, land, healing of matrilineal lines by connecting to matriarchal power, embodiment, instinct and intuition. Ritual plays a large role in my making process, where I...

BEAUTIFUL BUT INSUFFICIENT

by Denise Callan | November 7, 2024 | Denise Callan, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Last year, Dear Maker contained a sealed confessional box called “Communion”. This piece facilitated a way for the audience to exercise the acknowledgement, expression and release of shame though written confessions. This year began with the burning of this confessional, the resulting ash becoming the beginning element for the next iteration. Each of the previous works utilised the inescapable...

Tell me more about ‘Desire Lines’

by Nellie Peoples | November 6, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

This my artwork created for the final Handshake 8 exhibition 'Materlise', present by the Handshake Project at the Artshouse Trust, Pah Homestead, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau. The exhibition runs from 8 November 2024 - 16 February 2025. The piece is called 'Desire Lines', 2024, Necklace, Found timber, FireLine, stainless steel, sterling silver. Collected timber locations: Tāmaki Makaura Auckland,...

THE DESTRUCTION OF SHAME

by Denise Callan | November 5, 2024 | Denise Callan, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

“Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction.” - Pablo Picasso This years work has begun with the destruction of confessions gathered throughout our last exhibition. The burning of these within their sealed confessional has left me with a new material: their ash. This ash becomes the nucleus of the next pieces, which focus on hope and restoration. This has then been added to...

A Journey of Image, Jewellery, and Process

by Lisa van Hulst | November 5, 2024 | Handshake8, Lisa van Hulst | 0 Comments

I feel incredibly fortunate to have had Manon van Kouswijk as my mentor over the past year. What stands out most about Manon’s approach is her quiet sense of humour—subtle and layered, it gradually reveals itself, inviting a deeper appreciation of her work. I often found myself hoping that some of this lightness of touch would rub off on me as I explored my own creative process. At the start of...

I wonder …

by Fiona Frew | November 3, 2024 | Fiona Few, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Everyday, I walk my dog. Everyday, our walks are by our local water ways (the Kakanui beach and the Kakanui River). Nearly everyday, I wonder why there are so many things to be found that don't necessarily belong there. So, everyday, I walk and I wonder about this stuff, all of this stuff, and how things might be different.

Thoughts on Labour

by Fiona Frew | October 29, 2024 | Fiona Few, Handshake8, Sample | 0 Comments

For me Labour Weekend, a New Zealand public holiday, has always been associated with celebrating my birthday and with miserable wet weather. But, it is an important weekend holiday that has more significance than merely time off work. Labour Day is actually a time to celebrate the 8 hour working day, for which New Zealand was at the forefront of establishing. The carpenter Samuel Parnell is the...

MATERIALISE, HS8 exhibition

by admin | October 29, 2024 | Collaboration, Exhibition, Handshake8, News | 0 Comments

MATERIALISE: HANDSHAKE 8 Pah Homestead, Auckland, Aotearoa NZ 8 November 2024 - 16 February 2025 Denise Callan, Fiona Frew, Fran Carter, Genie Lee, Grace Yu Piper, Lisa van Hulst, Louise Hill, Nellie Peoples, Rachel Chapman, Rose Pickernell, Tūī Diprose MATERIALISE marks the conclusion of a two-year journey for this remarkable group of HANDSHAKE 8 artists, at The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead,...

1Q84 and Korean Jade 곡옥 – Jade that Resembles an Embryo

by Genie Lee | October 28, 2024 | Genie Lee | 0 Comments

“Miss, do you have kids?” “No, you lot are enough trouble for me.” (my students giggle) When I left South Korea, one of the main reasons was: I don’t want my child to go through this. A high suicide rate, endless hours for study and work, compulsory military service, rampant corruption, low human rights and women’s rights, and constant competition. I couldn’t find hope in my childhood or early...

A Short Story Instead of an Artist Statement

by Genie Lee | October 23, 2024 | Genie Lee, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

I called Mum in Korea to tell her I’m in trouble with a lot of deadlines, as usual. I didn’t tell her I might be homeless soon, or that I’m too broke to send her next month’s allowance, or that I’m on trial as a victim of a crime in this foreign country after 15 years of being here. My brother warned me that her memory loss is getting worse, and she’s deteriorating. He’s been looking after her...

Inheritance

by Lisa van Hulst | October 10, 2024 | Handshake8, Lisa van Hulst | 0 Comments

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” Unknown I felt that perhaps I had gone insane as I looked back through the piles of almost identical cyanotype prints I made in creating the work inheritance. The process was the point, the exploration of making the same thing but with subtly varying materials to see how an object reads as it all but...

Beginning to See the Light: Final Exhibition for Handshake 8

by Fran Carter | October 2, 2024 | Fran Carter, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Lately, I’ve found myself resonating with a line from Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground days: “Well, I’m beginning to see the light.” Though Reed's words may have come from a different place entirely, the sense of slow-building euphoria in those lyrics feels fitting as I find my way back to the light at the end of my own tunnel. We’re in the home stretch now, preparing for the final Handshake 8...

MIKAMI Seiko and the abject

by Louise Hill | September 16, 2024 | Louise Hill | 0 Comments

Seiko Mikami (1961 – 2015) was a Japanese artist known for her large-scale installations. I had the opportunity to experience her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, when I visited Japan last year. Upon entry I encountered, Scale (1993), an installation consisting of a set of bathroom scales with a large number of shower heads pointing towards them. I could only imagine my own body...

To bead, or no to bead, that is the question…

by Nellie Peoples | September 12, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

Each morning I am in the studio the morning often begins with a question, "to bead, or not to bead...?". Whilst my making and form exploration has been happening on many projects this year, simultaneously, I have been working on an idea that has been bubbling away in between all the other work. From found and scavenged timber scraps I created a collection of bead-like forms. Each bead is based...

Drift Lines

by Nellie Peoples | September 1, 2024 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples | 0 Comments

Recently I had a solo exhibition Drift Lines at Masterworks, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. To see the full catalogue please click here. "The beach is made of drift lines, all on different time: the seashell rack lines that dance with the waves; the volcanic rock, carved by water, trapping fish and driftwood and oysters; and then there’s my feet, leaving deep pressed footprints that...

Help Beautify Junkyards. Throw Something Lovely Away Today!

by Louise Hill | August 29, 2024 | Handshake8, Louise Hill | 0 Comments

“There’s a wonderful sign hanging on a Toronto junkyard which reads: “Help beautify junkyards—throw something lovely away today.” And this is a very effective way of getting people to notice a lot of things.” — Marshall McLuhan In his 1964 work, The Medium is the Message, Marshall McLuhan argues that the way a story is communicated (the medium) has a bigger impact than the story itself. The...

MIRROR / IMAGE

by Fran Carter | August 26, 2024 | Fran Carter, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

It's a grey, mist-enshrouded Monday. 'A weather event' has ascended on the region overnight, heavy rainfall swelling rivers and causing havoc on the land and commuters. I'm tucked up in my nest among the hills, exorcising a chest infection, huffing inhalations of hot eucalyptus-infused steam, downing panadol, and other sinus solutions. Whilst I haven't been able to physically be in my workshop...

New Zealand Jewellery Triennial

by admin | August 20, 2024 | Curation, News | 0 Comments

The second Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial (2025-26) The second Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial, curated by Sian van Dyk will take place at: The Suter Art Gallery, Nelson (8 March – 8 June 2025) and Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North (23 August 2025 – 1 March 2026)Moniek Schrijer, installationThe first Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial (2022) Auckland, 10 September – 20 November 2022 The first NZ...

of the matrilineal line;

by Tui Diprose | August 14, 2024 | Handshake8, Tūī Diprose | 0 Comments

This stone talisman was made in part of a deepening inquiry into matriarchal energy and matrilineal lines, embodiment and intuition. I explore this stone and others in varying ways, allowing instinct to guide me. I cleansed and blessed it in a stream on the land I currently live on, which I share with my cousin, her partner and her two young children. We talk sometimes of our own mothers, our...

Form follows material

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

In my previous post, ‘Pōhutukawa Play’, I was exploring surface treatments and finishes that I could achieve with the timber. The second part of the exercise given by my mentor, Neke Moa, was to go deeper into the material. Beyond the surface. It was time to explore what forms could speak to what I had learnt about the pōhutukawa tree - its uses, its histories, its stories and its abundant...

LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

by Denise Callan | August 7, 2024 | Denise Callan, Handshake8, Sample | 0 Comments

As I look back at my works from our Proof of Concept exhibition as a beginning point to move forward, the prospect of a new beginning feels quite daunting. Yet, the more rational parts of me know there is much to discover if I can take that first step. From this point, the nucleus of the work is a shared experience with those who generously participated in Communion. A sealed confessional that...

HAUNTING

by Denise Callan | August 7, 2024 | Denise Callan, Handshake8 | 0 Comments

Our last workshop series with Estela has been spent learning to present our work electronically. We spent many weeks responding to her outrageously genius prompts. The results for me have been both painstaking, and pleasantly surprising at times. The prompt for this video was to make an instrument from tin foil and film it making the sound of the sun rising. The results, a little haunting…...

May I Introduce…..

by Rachael Chapman | July 9, 2024 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman, Sample | 0 Comments

....My personal mentor for this year, Katrin Spranger. I couldn’t believe my luck when Katrin said yes to mentoring me for the 2nd year of Handshake 8. She was my first choice and is such an impressive artist and entrepreneur. I clearly remember the day I stumbled upon Katrin. I’d just finished an (almost) all-nighter completing the Entrepreneurship Paper for my degree - it was by far the worst...

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...