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:
The story of my chain for CHAINreaction
My piece for the Nelson Jewellery week handshake show, CHAINreaction (at the refinery in Nelson) was a rather personal piece for me. I did not set out to make such a personal piece but once it was finished it felt cathartic, as if I had needed to make something about...
Daemons and Geniuses
For the Nelson CHAINReaction show I played around with several ideas but I wasn’t happy … they were just not right, they were lacking…. Lacking what I didn’t know, I couldn’t put my finger on it... they were just a bit meh… a bit average, contrived… I didn’t feel good...
Connecting through CHAINreaction
Nelson Jewellery Week looked fantastic from a far! If only the trans-Tasman bubble had opened just a few weeks earlier. The CHAINreaction exhibition, in particular, was wonderful to be involved in - at least my work made it over when I couldn't! CHAINreaction...
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Do you ever walk across this Earth, hearing the sound of your steps upon the ground, and wonder- am I really here? Do you sometimes hold your hand up to your face and ask- is this really me?
Nelson Jewellery Week and other assorted goodies
Scrambling to finish the ‘connection’ to my neighbour for CHAINreaction, Handshakes at the Refinery show in Nelson. I had used a ‘found’ piece of copper and stripped it down to make a rather tiny link and Attai asked me • why round? • how do you move from one material...
Shackle tackle
Catching up again. Now I’m in February. And preparing for CHAINreaction exhibition. The Handshakers had a casual get together over Zoom and shared what we were working on. I was stunned it was February already and was feeling the pressure building over the imminent...
Reflections on Signing In: 2020
Dear Blog, Firstly, apologies I have been slack on posting since our Handshake6 exhibition in October/November last year. My life has settled with a new home since then and this is my commitment that I will be better! Before moving forward I want to share my...
2020 Postmortem
Attai and I talked about the Te Auaha show. We talked about Covid. And family. And artists. We talked about holding on to work. Prioritising making money over work and finding a way to make it work. Oh the forever elusive balance. We talked about the upcoming chain....
Ode to Te Auaha
Looking back. Catching up. Just a few months behind. October 2020, my partner and I drove down to Wellington, with jewellery, rolls of paper and other paraphernalia for our Handshake 6 ‘process’ show. It was magic to be on the open road, going somewhere. We stopped...
How will an object sit on the body? How will a body sit on the object?
I’ve always loved chairs. Especially chairs like these... For a while now, I’ve been photographing chairs that I find on the street (if only I had the space to collect the objects themselves!). Used, worn and broken, these are objects that have lived their lives in...