Welcome to HandShake 8, 2023-24
HS8 is a two-year programme designed to encourage experimentation, feedback, development, and exhibiting for emerging artists. The HS8 development program aims to challenge and support each artist in their creative development, helping them to grow their capability, excitement, and endeavour through a range of masterclasses, professional support, and feedback.
The programme is comprised of eleven artists selected by Estela Saez Vilanova from Barcelona, who began with a series of masterclasses that delved deep into the content and depth of the artist’s work practice.
Estela Saez Vilanova’s masterclass is a source of inspiration and support for each HS8 artist, providing them with various design options and ideas opportunities. Her passion, succession of briefs, and direct feedback stimulate the development process in terms of ideas, material exploration, and art-making.
A special face-to-face masterclass gathering was held during the Nelson Jewellery Week in mid-April 2023, featuring the successful Push-Pull workshop of Renee Bevan (12-16 April 2023).
In the second half of 2023, the HS8 artists refined and developed their ideas from explorations and discoveries from the two masterclasses and a series of feedback sessions by three international mentor coaches who helped them refine their ‘process‘ explorations.
Another masterclass with writing expert May-Jane Duffy focuses on blog writing, content writing, and artist statements.
From 4 – 20 December 2023, HS8 artists exhibited their 2023 ‘process’ work (including some finished artwork) at DEPOT Art Space, Auckland. See their exhibition.
In the second year (2024), the HS8 mentees are matched with their mentors. The mentees develop their ideas and materials in a body of work with the assistance of their mentor.
Andrea Daly and Neke Moa’s online masterclass on ‘theory and history’ integrates art and design theory with the depth of the HS8 artist’s work through experimentation and exploration. Neke Moa introduces how connections to the art practices of tangata whenua are explored within her own artworks and those of others.
In 2024, the final masterclass will focus on innovative presentation methods. This includes using images and videos to explore different ways of presenting artworks for the HS exhibition online programme and social media platforms. The masterclass will also concentrate on producing a collaborative video expressing the unique group dynamics of HS8 alongside their artworks at their Pah Homestead exhibition.
HS8’s second and end-of-project exhibition MATERIALISE: 8 Nov 2024 – 16 Feb 2025 will take place at Pah Homestead, Auckland, opening on Thursday, 7 November 2024, from 6-8 pm.
HS8 blog posts:
Any moment now…
For many of the previous classes with Estela we had been oscillating between creatively exploring within two and three dimensions. In this session we played somewhere in between. We had a creative brief that was inspired by our latest collection of rings. It was a...
doorways
Small moments. Fragments of my insides.Threads to pick up. Objects to place. Being with discomfort. Creating from that place. I see forests, oceans, rivers, land, weaving themselves through my mind, speaking their stories. pollution. deforestation. over harvesting....
Not Everything Goes to Plan
This Post is like that bloopers section you sometimes get at the end of comedy movies. There were a couple of pieces made during the Estella Workshop phase that kinda crashed and burned. I tell myself "this is a time to experiment. If I'm not hitting the occasional...
Rings From Other Things
I want to say "this was another fun week of play"....but maybe that diminishes the process. With hindsight it's true, but I am writing these posts several weeks after the online workshop and group crit. In the lead up, I'm always pushing to try 'one more idea' and I...
Losing control
We have just wrapped up 10 sessions with the fantastic Estela Saez. Sometimes it was crazy fun and other times it was deeply challenging. My practice is very material based, I am obsessed with stone and reluctant to work with other...
Silver Linings
Weirdly, going back to the material that started this whole crazy mid-life career change, was kinda challenging. My little world had been so consumed with plastic’s and soft materials that I was a bit anxious getting back on the tools. To combat this, I spent a bit...
Welcome to HandShake 8, 2023-24
HS8 is a two-year programme designed to encourage experimentation, feedback, development, and exhibiting for emerging artists. The HS8 development program aims to challenge and support each artist in their creative development, helping them to grow their capability, excitement, and endeavour through a range of masterclasses, professional support, and feedback.
The programme is comprised of eleven artists selected by Estela Saez Vilanova from Barcelona, who began with a series of masterclasses that delved deep into the content and depth of the artist’s work practice.
Estela Saez Vilanova’s masterclass is a source of inspiration and support for each HS8 artist, providing them with various design options and ideas opportunities. Her passion, succession of briefs, and direct feedback stimulate the development process in terms of ideas, material exploration, and art-making.
A special face-to-face masterclass gathering was held during the Nelson Jewellery Week in mid-April 2023, featuring the successful Push-Pull workshop of Renee Bevan (12-16 April 2023).
In the second half of 2023, the HS8 artists refined and developed their ideas from explorations and discoveries from the two masterclasses and a series of feedback sessions by three international mentor coaches who helped them refine their ‘process‘ explorations.
Another masterclass with writing expert May-Jane Duffy focuses on blog writing, content writing, and artist statements.
From 4 – 20 December 2023, HS8 artists exhibit their 2023 ‘process’ work (including some finished artwork) at DEPOT Art Space, Auckland.
In the second year (2024), the HS8 mentees are matched with their mentors. The mentees develop their ideas and materials in a body of work with the assistance of their mentor.
Andrea Daly and Neke Moa’s online masterclass on ‘theory and history’ integrates art and design theory with the depth of the HS8 artist’s work through experimentation and exploration. Neke Moa introduces how connections to the art practices of tangata whenua are explored within her own artworks and those of others.
In 2024, the final masterclass will focus on innovative presentation methods. This includes the use of images and videos to explore different ways of presenting artworks for the HS exhibition online programme and social media platforms. The masterclass will also concentrate on producing a collaborative video expressing the unique group dynamics of HS8 alongside their artworks at their Pah Homestead exhibition.
HS8’s second and end-of-project exhibition MATERIALISE: 8 Nov 2024 – 16 Feb 2025 will take place at Pah Homestead, Auckland, opening on Thursday, 7 November 2024, from 6-8 pm.
A GENTLE NUDGING
More gentle than a whisper. Your voice summons me. A prompting, a leading, a nudge.
Finding your signature
Meeting with the wonderful Beppe Kessler has been a highlight of Handshake so far. Beppe is an incredibly accomplished contemporary jeweller and it is an honour to have her focus on my own work. She encouraged me to draw on my background (in Sociology and Politics...
OBJECT & EGO: Part 1
The following is an unpublished journal excerpt from 2015 when I was studying for my Graduate Diploma through Whitireia NZ Object & Ego I find it an ill fit when telling someone my occupation my response “I’m studying contemporary jewellery” Then asked “Oh, what...
My My What a Mentor
The first session with Katharina Detar was so insightful - what a treat to have her special brand of cool and kind, focused on my practice. I am continually humbled by the opportunities that this Handshake programme provides for us. Having time with a head tutor...
My dream Jewellery
Story of BK What do you do for a job? I work as a technical teacher at a secondary school. May I ask how old you are? I am 49 years old. If you could have any neckpiece of your choice in the world, what would that piece look like? I don't know. Maybe a noose (laugh)....