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:
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”
CHAINreaction has been a really nice chance to focus on connections, community and solidarity, and to applaud the legacy of the Handshake project and all Peter and Hilda have given over the last ten years- I am so disappointed not to be there to share in the...
Old ideas in a new light?
I started writing this blog on the flight back to Auckland from Wellington last year after the Te Auaha show…the blog was full of could have, should have, would have’s bla bla! The show was about process and our HS6 journey’s, much like stopping off...
My summer of monarchs and metaphors
I became a little obsessed with monarch caterpillars this summer. In the absence of making, during a very busy and stressful time at work and with my family, my only outlet was focusing on these little creatures. I couldn’t make, there was no space in my head to do...
Object Runway
The title 'Object Runway' alludes to the reality television series 'Project Runway', where fashion designers compete against each other in challenges. Circulating the space on a motorised pulley system are aluminium mobiles. Loosely anthropomorphic, these...
A Year
My first year of HANDSHAKE 6... How to: Get from my head to my hands; from thinking to object Bring awareness to my process Evoke not describe Pare back Say more with less Writing has become a valuable tool in my making process. Stream of...
‘Signing In’, Te Auaha, Wellington, Nov 2020.
a pocket a stone presence absence remains ‘Stones. On the ground and of the ground. Grounded; grounding. Hand objects.’ Materials: Stone, EPNS, soap, wood,...
The Preservation of Memory ( CHAINreaction)
The Preservation of Memory I have shifted my focus from knots to memory as this was an underlying theme of my work last year and has taken centre stage in 2021. In considering memory as a colour, I realised that for me it centred chiefly around cream; babies’ teeth,...
Te Auaha Exhibition
I am at long last contemplating the Te Auaha exhibition held in Wellington last September. It was four months ago, the end of 2020 punctuated with Christmas and the luxury of travel and family available to us. We are truly blessed in this regard. This time last...
Contextualizing my work through history
I felt it necessary to look into the history of bone use in New Zealand Jewellery, where it originates from and where it sits today. Traditional bone carving has a long history in New Zealand and the wider South Pacific - initially it was a means to create useful...
Breakable Rules
Until 2020 I had never done a masterclass but in January and February I was lucky to participate in both the HS6 masterclass with Iris Eichenberg and a few weeks following a masterclass with David Bielander at RMIT in Melbourne. Iris Eichenberg discussed studio...