Radiant Pavilion, Melbourne
4-12 September 2021
For many months Handshake (NZ), Dialogue Collective (UK) and TempContemp (AU) have collaborated on the show “Containment/Uncontained” for Radiant Pavilion 2021.
There were many zoom meetings connecting the 2 sides of the globe, exploring and discussing ideas on expressing our experience of our relative freedom or confinement.
The final works are a response to the different COVID situations and its challenges; distance, isolation, uncertainty and restriction vs freedom.
Due to lockdown in Melbourne during Radiant Pavilion there was no physical exhibition, but a series of posters up and around Melbourne and an online zine.
The full project can be found here: https://handshakeproject.com/contained-uncontained/
For this show I made this chain. When trialling colours, I was very drawn to the pink, which mystified me. I generally work in a natural, earthy colour palette. Pink just seemed strange for a restrictive chain and a bit wussy to me, but my gut told me to go with it.
( I did change the colour of the piece around the neck after I took this photo.
Colours are a bit more salmon pink in the photo than in reality.. it was a quick snapshot in the studio. )
I decided to have another conversation with this chain. (I am starting to like these conversations. They reveal not only my subconscious thoughts, but also a higher source’s intention.)
It went as follows:
Chain: I am glad you made me.
Nina: Really? Why?
Chain: I am a happy chain.
Nina: You are not supposed to be a happy chain!
Chain: Haha… did I fool you!
Nina: You are supposed to be about constriction and restriction.
Chain: Restriction is not always a negative, it forces you to go deeper, to look for other possibilities
So now I know why it had to be pink!!
Posters around Melbourne
My zine page.