In the HSDCTC co-lab collaboration these three art jewellery groups joined forces to collectively explore ‘Containment/Uncontained’, reflected by the relationships between jewellery objects and themes of freedoms and restrictions. This exhibition encompasses the stormy journeys and the triumphs that sustained us in the face of a worldwide pandemic.

HSDCTC co-lab sprung to life during the 2020 lockdown, across borders and boundaries despite the planet being at standstill. At the time, Covid disrupted the traditional ways in presenting and experiencing art; the subsequent uncertainty presented participants with the challenge and opportunity to explore what a jewellery ‘exhibition’ could look like. ‘Containment / Uncontained – working across borders’ started both as an experience and an expression of lockdown intimacy with its bounded restraints.

During 2021 the participating artists decided to populate the streets of lockdown-restricted Melbourne, Australia with sizeable imagery reflecting their first visual experiments into ‘Containment/Uncontained’. Big size imagery adorned bollards with jewellery artworks provoked by the ideas of restricted freedom. The then-present strict rules dictated the visual nature of this project, and it proved to be an ideal start to the next venture.

During 2022, the HSDCTC co-lab continued to unpack the issues that were experienced during the global pandemic at Pah Homestead in Auckland, New Zealand. This time the metaphysical and tangible borders had somehow dispersed, and the collaborators were able to explore the theme further in symbolically inquisitive yet highly expressive ways.

The HSDCTC co-lab concludes during Nelson Jewellery week 2023. Each of the twenty artists completes their collaboration voyage at the Refinery Art Space, Nelson with their dissected theme studies and jewellery objects supported by images, texts and video. In the run up to ‘Containment / Uncontained’ show finale this April, participants reflect on the themes explored within their artworks as they answer questions about the creative collaboration process that took place…

  Mandy Flood

Blue to Brown

Who knew a glittery translucent gem could become a murky opaque rock?

The beginning was hopeful, full of new thoughts. The present is constraining and fraught with unknowns.

  Becky Bliss

Play Well

I’m thinking about recent weather events, infrastructure, and the instability of democracy.

Lego is a collaborative game. Now more than ever we need to play well together.

Fun Facts

Lego was founded in 1932 by Danish Ole Kirk Kristiansen. Originally called ’automatic binding bricks’ they were made of wood.

After 2 years they were renamed LEGO after the Danish phrase leg godt (“play well”).

In 1949 LEGO produced its first plastic brick, a precursor to its signature brick with interlocking studs on the top and tubes on the bottom. It was patented in 1958 by Christiansen’s son Godtfred Kirk, who replaced his father as the head of the company.

The brick has stayed the same since it was patented (Wikipaedia)

They’ve kept up with the times by creating what’s topical for kids;  Star Wars, Batman, Marvel Comics superheroes, Harry Potter and Batman, but not until now have they addressed social issues.

Lego aims to make all its products including packaging, from renewable or recycled materials by 2025, and will be able to be recycled. I’m wondering what’s taken them so long.

  Caroline Thomas

I like to think I’m in control of my life. Every day I put things into actual and mental boxes and work valiantly to manage their contents.

Meanwhile the earth growls capriciously beneath my feet and the wind chases through the trees, whipping the sea into an unchecked rage.

And the dog lies asleep in his box, twitching and scrabbling his paws, running with the wolves.

  Judy Darragh 

Rainbows are joyous events; our imaginations are sparked by the rays of colour arched across the sky.

Prisms allow us to create a rainbow at will, we can have our own power over light.

This body of work is ongoing I have used prisms in my sculptural works for some time.

  Mia Straka  

Responding to the theme Containment/Uncontained and ideas of public versus private, these new works explore the process behind creative expression; seeding an idea through an incubation period, expressing it into physical form, then releasing it into the world. For me, when functioning as it should, this is like an extended version of breathing. The neckware draws form and title from the early branching of Primitive bronchial buds in the lungs and steps  further towards adornment scale from the space defining, pandemic era Cloudbubble works featured in the photographic and video works. Perhaps the act of wearing our innards outwardly might remind us to slow down and go with this flow… in and out, cyclically.

  Nadene Carr  

Within this body of work I have turned inward to my own personal environment. House, objects

and animals. Exaggerating the confinement over the last few years and the intense gathering of
clutter and madness.
I have used found painted canvases for my work to adorn the body. Once had a life but now
rendered unwanted clutter in our throw away society. Building a strong welded frame to support
the canvases, cutting up to find the sweet spot.

  Nik Hanton  

“The idea of being contained is confronting and raises many questions in an individual perhaps, largely, WHAT? What does this mean for me? What can I do within these constraints? What is the best path forward? And what next…?”

  Nina van Duijnhoven  

How to chain an elephant?

When a circus elephant is young and small, a metal clasp which is attached to a heavy metal chain is tightly closed around the baby elephant’s ankle. That ankle clasp is then hammered into the ground using a thick metal stake. The elephant keeps trying to break free, but eventually the experience of powerlessness is imprinted and he stops trying even as he grows older and stronger.

  Sarah Read   

‘The boundary between us and not-us is profoundly permeable’, writes Maria Popova. ‘We become ourselves through communion and conviviality with what is not us.’

Pre-Covid, my work often included elements of social practice. A 2019 statement reads: ‘I want my work to spark connections, force encounters, cause a pause.’

Since then, so much has fallen away. I have spent a disproportionate amount of time alone, in my studio, joining bead to tiny bead. There’s comfort and self-soothing to be found in the obsessive action of the process; the silk through the glass. In. Out. The outstretched arm, again and back.

However, enough is enough. Here we are again in Whakatū Nelson, connecting in real life.

Here’s to:

·         conviviality

·         craft

·         generosity

·         curiosity

·         colour and, yes

·         finding our joy

How much larger your life would be if yourself could become smaller in it.
You’d find yourself under a freer sky
In a street full of splendid strangers. —G.K. Chesterton

  Anet Wrobel  

OUT     IN

TANGLED     WINGS

DOTS     LENSES

COLOUR     SENSES

FEAR     SMILE

SPACE     LIE

KNOWLEDGE     FLOOR

TEARS     JOY

SHINE     SINNER

THOUGHTS     WINNER

JOY     REGRET

BREATHE     NET

  Petra Bishai  

My work is part of my Home Taping is Killing Music collection and reflects the

importance that music has in my day-to-day life, in both my contained and uncontained

states.  My work considers how much of our identity is tied up with the

music that we listen to:  the visual memories and the awareness that are evoked on

hearing certain sounds and songs; the reaction that certain music elicits in us all.  What are

you listening to?  Turn up the volume.

  Isabelle Busnel  

A powerful beacon of growth and new beginnings, the butterfly signifies the power of transformation and the incredible feats we can achieve when we trust ourselves.

In the series of 3 brooches featured, the blue butterfly slowly emerges from the surface, ready to spread it wings and fly.

  Annelisse Pfeifer   

Since graduation, my jewellery practice has additionally evolved into a packing and unpacking business. Working from an improvised mobile studio, I have learned to adapt to working with both old and new materials as a way to make full use of any extra time outside of ‘work’.

Time and space constitute vital elements when carrying out a creative practice and unleashing the imagination in a busy city. I have learned that having a studio space and regular time dedicated to the creative endeavor is a privilege.  It is all packed in small boxes. All is stripped down to the bare minimum, becoming a constant revision of all my works created until this day – an assemblage of spare materials.

Yet I have embraced the constant hidden joy and freedom to play with tonalities, surfaces, and forms. Creating during spare time brings comfort and soothing qualities. The satisfaction of collaging, sticking, and stitching and the therapeutic opportunity that comes with accomplishing every new work. All unpacked and then packed in a constant loop.

The created piece in this context acquires new meanings; I deconstruct and reconstruct objects found in reality. I generate an amalgam together with my trusted stored friends. I reinvent their purpose, inviting a playful, more experimental, and surreal outcome. Then, my practice comes to life through curious compositions, colours, and textures packed with afresh new qualities.

  Timothy Information Limited   

Break the Chain

Ladies and Gentlemen! Roll up, Roll up!

Now you don’t see it…….. And now you do?

Hey! And if you don’t like the big, noble, nay regal, chunk of wood, hanging like a millstone around your neck, then unscrew it and attach the chain to something or somewhere else. Take some bloody control. Make your own jewellery choices. Don’t be trapped by the artist. Don’t be contained by the artist. Break free.

  Maud Traon  

For many of us COVID was a very challenging time that shifted our perception of life. With mixed feelings, the seemingly obvious elements of our daily life came shaking and with them all the personal doubts and questions that were concealed in them.

The Heart Shape Ring gives place to mourning the past but is a reminder that rebuilding oneself is sometimes a necessity to grow in life.

Heart Shape Ring, Fire Opal, Rough Ruby, Garnet, CZ Stones, Silver.

  Mary Velvet Hart  

For many of us COVID was a very challenging time that shifted our perception of life. With mixed feelings, the seemingly obvious elements of our daily life came shaking and with them all the personal doubts and questions that were concealed in them.

The Heart Shape Ring gives place to mourning the past but is a reminder that rebuilding oneself is sometimes a necessity to grow in life.

Heart Shape Ring, Fire Opal, Rough Ruby, Garnet, CZ Stones, Silver.

  Sorca  

Supplied complete with wire panels and helicoil corners for a robust construction. GALFAN-coated finish offers superior corrosion resistance. Square mesh holes ideal for use with larger gabion stones and quick filling. Wire construction offering a strong basket. Ideal for erosion control and wave absorption.

  Margot Sevadjian   

This work delves into the themes of Containment and Uncontained by using two figurines and a pearl necklace.

The black-dressed figurine embodies hidden emotions that can feel oppressive, while the second doll exudes a slimy magma made of resin and thermoplastic elastomers, representing uncontained emotions that can be overwhelming. The pearl necklace also drips with the same substance, signifying traditional jewellery that breaks free from societal norms and expectations to represent uncontained emotions.

The combination of these elements invokes complex emotions, and challenge viewers to reflect on their own relationship with containment and expression, highlighted by the significance of expressing oneself fully. It encourages to contemplate on our locked-away feelings behind closed doors with its potential consequence of uncontained emotions, even if it defies conventional beliefs of composure.

  Victoria King  

Victoria has transformed a vintage tin into a locket to be worn as a statement necklace. She found the tin in a junk shop selected for it’s decorative quality, with faded lettering and rusty colours, ones that you can see time has taken is toll, like it is telling it’s own story. Victoria loves objects steeped in nostalgia, they reflect the history of the area, taking you back in time. They entice the viewer to interact with them and find out what secrets are inside. A playful collage is hidden within the locket as if it express the subconscious of the wearer, creating dreamscapes, an alternative reality to the commercial items that were once contained inside.

  Laila Marie Costa  

TempContemp (TC) is a curatorial project experimenting with the exhibition and promotion of contemporary jewellery.

Founded in Melbourne, Australia, by Laila Marie Costa and Anna Gray in 2018, the white cube has shapeshifted into a nomadic entity seeking out space and artists in its eternal exploration and interrogation of ‘jewellery’.

With golden milk crates, digital platforms, and enthusiasm at the ready, TC has explored the notions of being contained whether it be by bricks and mortar, geopolitical borders, perceived liminal time/space continuums, diversity (& it’s lack of), beige gender expectations and future manifestations.