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
The HANDSHAKE 6 Activities’ programme for 2020 – 2021:
MASTERclass 2021
ON-E by: Estela Saez Vilanova (CAT-ES)
A series of Zoom workshops during April – October about ONLINE EXHIBTIONS with the intention to prepare Handshake 6 artists for their online exhibition submission

Statement: Recently, curators and educators have progressively started exploring the numerous possibilities proposed by virtual exhibitions. Institutions have made 3-D tours of their galleries accessible online through a variety of platforms, allowing visitors from around the globe to virtually “wander” through many Museums around the world, Van Gogh Museum or Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico among other significant sites. But when the Covid-19 pandemic started, public curiosity in virtual art experiences, as for the need of the maker to present worldwide their works, increased like never before.
The online-exhibiting field is yet to be fully discovered, therefore our main purpose with this Masterclass -besides the fact that Handshake Program has since long counted with online exhibitions-, it is to offer intuitive virtual exhibition ideas and presentation of our works, that offers flexibility and are willing to reach to public and/or followers showing their final results, as for its working process as part of the result itself. Aiming at generating enthusiasm through sharing emotions, new values and creating expectations; “The goal is the meaning and the meaning is the goal” while testing abstract and visual/sound experiments, we will our work and process as for the idea of how to present virtually these works yet we as creators. Throughout provoking alternatives to in-person viewing, interactive and a variety of content formats that viewers can engage with, especially during the present times we live in.
Techniques: Video/sound/photo
JEWELcamp 2021 June – Aug
FUNDRAISING Workshop
by: Joany Grima
Objectives: To empower HS6 artists to create a practical, implementable and achievable plan to achieve your collective Handshake fundraising goal.
JEWELcamp & MASTERclass 2020
The HS6 programme started off in pre-Covid January with a JEWELcamp that contained an intro and instruction to the programme, and a Push/Pull intro workshop with Renee Bevan, and a Masterclass workshop with Iris Eichenberg at NZ school of Art & Fashion, Epsom, Auckland.
What happened during MASTERclass:
HS6 artists had to place 5 unfinished works and a finished work they brought along from their workshops on the table.
Iris asked to spend 45 mins with no talking, moving around the tables and adding, subtracting, or moving/grouping works as they pleased.
On an adjacent table, each had tipped out the shoebox of workshop materials they brought along. Invited to help themselves to anyone’s collection they ‘interfered’ with others’ work on the table. After this, all had to write down what was noticeable when they interfered with other’s people’s objects, and what was noticeable what happened to their own work.
Each discussed that in the group.
Following that Iris asked to take some things off the table that was thought were not finished or did not belong there – then to replace it with something.
After that they were instructed to categorise the remaining works into groupings.
They started this in seperate groups, but all moved in and around so the groups weren’t fixed, which happened naturally. After categorising, the remaining works were labelled and went into collections.
This freeing and fun exercise illuminates and illustrates how artists operate in terms of editing and taste preferences.
Iris’ questioning and inspiring ways brought magic to HS6
Blog Posts
GATES / GATEWAYS
Summer 2021. Time to RESET. But also for some reflection… Hard to believe it is a year since we all first met together for the Handshake introductions and masterclass with Iris and Renee in Auckland. It seems both like yesterday, and a lifetime ago… It was so great to...
Whirlwind in Wellington
Although belated I thought I would share my 2cents on the group show we had in wellington at Te Auaha gallery in October 2020. I brought along my partner both for support and because we both needed a change of scenery after 2020’s madness. We arrived in wellington at...
Te Auaha Show
Our first exhibition at Te Auaha was about showing our process. My process is doing, making, and generally quite a lot of it. I don’t draw, I don’t spend a lot time thinking prior to making. I sit down and just start… doing something…and from that something little...
Signing-In
EXHIBITION: 31 Oct - 13 Nov, 2020. Te Auaha gallery, 65 Dixon St, Wellington (opening event Fr 30 Oct, 5:30 pm) SIGNING IN reflects the participants’ work as a group since the start of their mentorship and marks the halfway point of their two-year journey. Here you...
Sheet
Tent (September 2020). Hazel twigs, drum kit, cotton, wood. What did I actually do in September work wise…I moved out of my workspace which became a building site while we renovated and restored our old windows, the dust sheets became my two boys’ den for a while (and...
Warming up
Again I am drawing a blank about what I’ve done in the last month and a half. Life has messed with me again. Interference at its best. We have just moved back into a Level 1 Covid restriction in Auckland which means we can virtually go about our every day lives with...
Data Structure
Pictographs and data structure, a daily diary over three months… finding the way.
Reflections on ‘Stuff Theory’ by Maurizia Boscagli
I recently came across this book which helped to bring together some of the ideas I’ve been thinking and reading about. It’s also helped me to set some parameters on what I am making as The Everyday is very broad and I got to a point a few months ago where I felt I...
Break Down
In 2001, British artist Michael Landy addressed excess consumerism and waste, by destroying all his possessions in an art project called “Break Down”. In the 3 years leading up to this event, every single one of his 7227 possessions was carefully classified and...
Knot Musings
I’ve had time to muse recently and realised how prevalent the knot is in our lives. Here follows a short chronology of their entwining in my life. One of our first moments as a human involves the severing of the life blood cord, that energy transfer complete and a...
The doing
Blank. Full moon...lack of sleep. Just spent the last two and a half weeks in Level 3 lockdown again in Auckland, New Zealand after an outbreak of Covid-19 from a mystery source. This time we were a little unprepared. Our heroic Covid-free world status was...
How to prepare bones for carving
This post is not for the faint of heart (or stomach). It features images or descriptions of handing meat and animal bones. Before you start preparing your bones you need to know what to ask for and where to get them. I get my bones from a local butchery, it’s best to...
What came before…
Stones. You lie on the ground, minding your own business when I go for a walk in the countryside. On the shore, you watch the waves come tumbling towards you, sometimes catching you and drawing you back to tumble gently backwards and forwards for another...
Head, Hands and Heart: Part 3 – Consider our invertebrates
Everyone can contribute to preserving biodiversity – the actions we take every day shape the environments around us, the ecosystems around us; what we choose to consume, how we transport ourselves, what we are doing in our backyards, or what we are not doing, all of these actions have an impact.
As a maker I need to examine my material choices.
“Go and do something while you wait and see”!
(August 2020) Tie at end of sleeve. False end? Or real? The annoying childhood quote which I'm still trying to tie/sew up lose ends with...and accomplish - Practice, Patience, and Persistence! (August 2020) 10 days, 4 hours of sewing per day. P.P.P...on...










