by Becky Bliss | Apr 4, 2023 | Becky Bliss
Estella challenged us through a series of fast exercises to look differently at common objects we had brought to the room. As we pushed through a range of materials, I realised that the choice of those materials had been quite important. Samples from exercises above I...
by Becky Bliss | Sep 11, 2020 | Curation
Following the theme of The Conventional Reformed, I’ve chosen to make circular brooches, because they have been around through the eras and the shape has been with us since the 5th century. The same palette from the Te Uru exhibition in December 2019 has been...
by Becky Bliss | Sep 11, 2020 | Curation
The Colour of Change Industrialisation was the catalyst for the current state of our planet. The decision to use fossil fuels to power progress has become unsustainable and life-threatening in contemporary times. While science is shouting at us, we continue to cling...
by Becky Bliss | Sep 11, 2020 | Curation
I made panels of squares, 70 of them, each to represent almost 2 years starting from 1900 to 2020, and painted them as scientifically correct as I could from the data of Dr. Ed Dawkins from Reading University. The tiles were made in moulds in plaster resin. They...
by Becky Bliss | Sep 11, 2020 | Curation
I was offered a 6 metre long wall at Te Uru. I contemplated filling it with wearable jewellery of varying sizes, but decided to fill it with a graphic representation of temperature change in our Pacific environment, something on top of my mind. Industrialisation...
by Becky Bliss | May 15, 2019 | Becky Bliss, Handshake5
If you were in any doubt who specific toys were targeted to, take a look at the packaging. Let’s look at statistics of engineers relatively recently in the US (since there’s a few meccano boxes specifically for engineering). Women account for 47% of...
by Becky Bliss | May 15, 2019 | Becky Bliss, Handshake5
The first plastic was developed in 1869. It was called celluloid and one of its first uses was to produce a white billiard ball (to replace ivory). Bakelite shortly followed. Oil was cheap, and the toy industry was gradually taken over. It was also very flammable. It...
by Becky Bliss | May 15, 2019 | Becky Bliss, Handshake5
Pre-war. Toys were made of wood, fabric, die-cast metals. Toys generally reflected the perceptions of society. Most came with gender values, designed to socialise children to behave with the gender expectations of their society (childhood by design). Some of the most...
by Becky Bliss | Mar 26, 2019 | Becky Bliss, Handshake5
Most anthropologists seem to agree that children’s toys have always had an educational element to them. The education is usually gender specific (no surprise here) – weapons and tools for the boys and dolls and cooking implements for the girls, whatever era we’re...
by Becky Bliss | Feb 27, 2019 | Becky Bliss, Handshake5
I am paired with the ADO collection and contemporary jeweller Lucy Sarneel. The ADO collection is an historical collection of wooden toys designed by Ko Verzuu from mid-1920 to early 1960s. The toys have clean lines and are brightly coloured, inspired by the De Stijl...
