MAKERS of Traditional Change:
‘The Conventional Reformed’
group EXHIBITION at Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney
02 – 23 October, 2020
A group exhibition of new work that connects to the context of traditional jewellery
This exhibition at Stanley Street gallery is a HANDSHAKE response to CHANGE MAKERS’ theme of the fourth annual Sydney Craft Week Festival.
Selected artists from former HANDSHAKE Projects responded to widely known jewellery traditions (how and why jewellery exists or is worn).
Last century saw a revolution in how jewellery was perceived. With this break from tradition artists shifted all known perimeters, and experimented how far its discourse can be pushed. The jewellery craft became a pursuit for ideas and with that the debate of its applied position in craft, art, or design.
This century became a time for consolidation through global restrain and social control resulting in a more rudimentary focus on material- and process culture. The revolution from last century unfolded into a slower paced evolution in how jewellery connects to the body.
The HS artists uncovered the reflective thinking behind their work and discoveries and unwrapped in multiple directions. See below what that is.
Becky Bliss:
Within a century, our planet is transformed on a massive scale by industrialization. While science is shouting at us, we continue to cling on to our ways of life as a right.
In today’s climate we are seeing rapid change to industries, our values and our way of life in response to global crises.
My mourning jewellery looks at the historical moments of climatic change in relation to how economic growth contributed to the slow destruction of our planet.
Caroline Thomas:
My body of work for The Conventional Reformed will be inspired by perhaps the most iconic form of jewellery, the faceted gemstone. Instead of working with jewels and setting them in a traditional setting, I will be concentrating on the negative space a gemstone leaves behind, a glittering void ‘set’ in an unexpected material. I will be playing with trompe l’oeil and asking questions about value, scale, the visible and the hidden, beauty, light and artifice.
Kristin D’Agostino:
I use take-away containers as a source material. I am interested in reconstruction of value and the paradox of uselessness as opposed to worth. Can a useless takeaway container become the source material for a precious object? What transformation is required for ordinary petroleum-based material to be seen as a treasured memento?
Kylie Sinkovich:
Within a conceptual format, my intention is to represent the container that jewellery is held and gifted in as a metaphor for how the valuable can be preserved, revealed or hidden, whilst elevating the container to equal status with the object/s inside. Allegorically it alludes to the notion that the mortal human vessel as a container can be both a barrier and gateway to your own true being.
Mandy Flood:
Black over Bills
The scaffold that holds a piece together is fundamental to its success. Through deconstruction and re-assembly, a series of work will deliver an analysis of the role of the setting.
A series of work that explore how the setting can be the hero of the piece.
Nik Hanton:
Gold-GoBigOrGoHome
What was deemed to be valuable is changing as individuals around the planet move to more ecologically friendly alternatives to traditional riches. No longer is jewellery just a diamond set in gold. As our personal values change people are investing in resources that were not previously seen of worth. With this, the concept of what qualifies as ‘precious’ is being altered.
Lisa Higgins:
REFLECTION
”Much of my work is material led referencing reinterpreting traditional formats through material choice and abstraction of familiar forms.”
Desirable oppositions, distortion of the familiar, contrast and contradiction all inform my making as do form and the preservation and interpretation of memory. Attempting to capture the intangible and give voice to the space between the visible and the invisible, the real and imagined… much of my work relies on an emotive response (albeit personal) referencing what has gone before and reinterpreting this through material choice and abstraction of familiar forms.
Sandra Schmid:
Exp_Watermelon Tourmaline
When the purpose of an item of jewellery becomes obsolete and the piece will be removed by its wearer, often marks remain on the body or clothing acting as reminder of former class, wealth, power, and status.
The collection will be an investigation into the memories, scars and impressions due to its lost purpose.
Sarah Walker-Holt:
Ellipse
Influenced by established hand-drawn and drafting methods, that use structural and functional knowledge of materials, composition and wearability, Sarah Walker-Holt generates seminal drawings that produce altered and distinctive jewellery. In an effort to comprehend and reinterpret the initial stage of drawing, in a traditional jewellery design process, the pieces are taken from their drawn state through an impromptu rendering process of materials and techniques, at the bench, that allows for a less formal and liberal interpretation.
Kelly McDonald:
“Blurrily focussing around the edges of the ‘jewelleryness of jewellery’, this work aims for an aesthetic balance between art and craft, the wall and the body, and the gutter and high value.”
Vivien Atkinson:
Darn Brooches
These works stem from an interest in traditional domestic practices that risk being lost/forgotten.
My mother taught me how to darn –With my recent sock knitting project the interest in darning has been renewed with thoughts of how it could be incorporated into my work. My concept is to combine the darning and the garment to create a “brooch” that defies the usual convention of being something mobile, to be placed where ever at the owner’s whim.