Participants (see their HS progress)
- Antonia Boyle
- Aphra Cheesman
- Nina van Duijnhoven
- Jack Hadley
- Fran Leitch
- Nikki Perry
- Amelia Rothwell
- Mia Straka
- Simon Swale
- Susan Videler
- Michelle Wilkinson
- Macarena Bernal
exhibition programme 2020 – 2022
HS6 final exhibition NORTHART, Northcote, Auckland, (30th August – 8th October: opening Sat 27 Aug 2022)
image: Mia Straka
Saturday 21 May – Sunday 24 July 2022
WHIRINAKI WHARE TAONGA, 836 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt
‘Jewellery Glimmer’ is how jewellery can make conversations with their surroundings. This exhibition is the precursor for the final HS6 exhibition ‘MORPH’ at NorthArt, Auckland.
image by Aphra Cheesman
Saturday 21 May – Sunday 24 July 2022
WHIRINAKI WHARE TAONGA, 836 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt
‘Jewellery Glimmer’ is all about how jewellery can make conversations with their surroundings. The art works are made from transformed materials, not often seen in jewellery.
image by Aphra Cheesman
‘CHAINreaction: Handshakes at the Refinery’
& ‘HS Archival Moments’ exhibitions
27 Mar – 17 Apr 2021
The Refinery ArtSpace, 114 Hardy Street, Nelson
CHAINreaction celebrates 10 years of the HANDSHAKE project. HS6 artists were among the 49 artists who have been directly and indirectly associated with the project. They all have all made a HANDSHAKE by contributing to a continuous necklace.
31 October – 13 November 2020
TE AUAHA art gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
SIGNING IN exhibition reflected the HS6 participants’ work as a group since the start of their mentorship and marks the halfway point of their two-year journey. The emphasis in this exhibition was on process as much as ‘finished’ artworks, and saw glimpses of ideas in their nascent phase, with many options and opportunities yet to emerge.
The title SIGNING IN also gives a nod to the exceptional year of the coronavirus and the forced lockdown realities of some of the HS participants.
08 July – 01 August 2020
Weasel C O N T E M P O R A R Y A R T G A L L E R Y 260 Victoria St / Hamilton
Handshake in Hamilton
Co-curated by contemporary art collector, Garth O’Brien, and Weasel Gallery Director, Laree Payne. Handshake in Hamilton presents a diverse range of contemporary jewellery from the Handshake 6 cohort alongside paintings by Hannah Ireland.
The exhibition name, Handshake in Hamilton, is of course first and foremost an extension of the group’s name. Simultaneously however it has assumed further significance in the context of Covid-19 as the age-old germ-ridden handshake is traded for a less deadly elbow-bump.
Handshake in Hamilton lands at an interesting time when many are craving interaction and engagement following prolonged isolation. Most people enjoy communicating with others, and although language might be the first method to come to mind, visual communication preludes language in most instances. Contemporary jewellery is then of course the perfect extension and communicator of identity.
Jewellers participating in the exhibition are: Amelia Rothwell, Aphra Cheesman, Fran Leitch, Jack Hadley, Macarena Bernal, Mia Straka, Michelle Wilkinson, Nikki Perry, Nina van Duijnhoven, Simon Swale and Susan Videler.
Hannah Ireland’s portraits will occupy the walls during Handshake in Hamilton. Through her research and practice, Ireland examines the performative aspect of social interaction including the various versions of oneself we present in different circumstances. Ireland contributes seven sitters to Handshake in Hamilton, they pose behind glass, yet feel like mirrors, inviting adornment.
Handshake in Hamilton will take place at Weasel Gallery which is located in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) from the 8th of July through until the 1st of August. The opening will take place on the 10th of July from 4pm-6pm (all are welcome).
The exhibition will be viewable through Weasel Gallery’s website (www.weaselgallery.com), or to request a catalogue please email Laree at contact@weaselgallery.com. Weasel Gallery is open Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 4pm, and Saturday from 11am – 3pm.
see more on KLIMT02
CHECK out HS6 ‘online exhibition’, which attempts to contextualise (jewellery) ideas and processes. HS6 did a series of Zoom workshops between April – October about ONLINE EXHIBITING called
ON-E by: Estela Saez Vilanova (CAT-ES)
This special masterclass with Estela Saez workshops how an online presence could break away from all known presentation methods (on the body or displayed). This digital gateway invited the HS6 artists to come up with innovative ideas and experiments.
NEWS & BLOG:
Through the looking glass, and what Alice found there
This new world is different. Just like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in 1872, we are now submerged in a backwards place. Busy roads are quiet, concert halls silent, and galleries are closed. Time is not quite running backwards, but it is going at a slower pace.
Quick Objects – PUSH
These are strange times. The change of routine and having to stay at home can’t help but affect how we work as artists and what we make. For me, the past month has been full of experiments and different ways of working. Thinking about Renee Bevans PUSH/PULL workshop,...
Schmuck 2020 and Corona
Dear Nina, We are very pleased to invite you to “Schmuck 2020” the special jewellery show during the 72nd International trade fair Munich. Chequita Nahar, dean of Academy of Fine Arts and Design Maastricht selected 63 artists from 29 countries out of 802...
Gatherings and interferences
We HS6’ers gathered in one place for our masterclass with Iris Eichenberg on 25 January 2020. The day before, we had met each other for the first time at Jewel Camp and shown our presentations to the room. Renee Bevan did her Push/Pull supercharged workshop with us...
Knots in the stomach
It was a little daunting presenting to a largely unknown group in Auckland that first day, however the benefits far outweighed any initial concerns. Renee Bevan grounded us all with a quick introduction to the Push /Pull theory. I feel fortunate to be with a group of...
IMPOSTER
Turning up on the first day of JEWELcamp I felt like a total impostor. I’m not a ‘real jeweller’ but a gleeful hobbyist. I haven’t gone to jewellery school. I’m impatient and I don’t know how to do things properly. Instead I go to jewellery night classes and watch...
A Manifesto Mashup
I begin with research around an idea. I obsess over it. It fills my head, completely, overwhelmingly. Everything revolves around this idea. Then I need to take time to give it space. Try not to rush it. To unfocus for a while. My themes tend towards the dark side, so I have to escape them for a bit. For my own sanity.
Then, when all the madness dissipates, I begin.
Intentional or by default?
Exhausting and at times an emotional roller-coaster, but what an amazing experience the Masterclass with Iris Eichenberg was. I am so grateful and happy to be part of this project and wonderful bunch of Handshakers! Fellow artists becoming friends to learn from, share...
INSIGHTS WITH IRIS
‘What makes the body present in this world is the doorway that is too small to fit through without having to make a shift’. Iris Eichenberg Over four days at the end of January 2020, we 12 Handshake6 participants came together for the first time to take part in a...
MY EXPERIENCE BEGINNING HS6
Meeting Iris was fabulous. The masterclass weekend was exhausting, by Sunday I had been working for 6 days straight in the same building not having much contact with the non-jewellery world. I was jewellery-ed out. During those eternal sessions with Iris I carefully...