Reflecting on 2 years of Handshake 8

It’s so nice to have this blog space to expand on the creative thoughts around this project.  So often we are limited to a certain word-count for artist statements.  For the record, that’s not a complaint – concise statements have their place, but I think 2 years of work necessitates a little more than 150 words to explain.

Reflecting on how far I’ve come…It seems a long way from the first class with Estela Saez.  Picture this – fresh off the degree course, new in a Gallery Managers job, a bunch of friends descending for my 50th birthday that weekend, barely set up in a new shared workshop where I didn’t know where anything was….and I got lost on the way there so was running late.  Not a great start – nervous, overwhelmed, and in-well-over-my-head is how I remember it.

That first session would best be described as a bit of a sh*t-show, but I grew to love Estela’s classes and am immensely grateful for her teachings and positive energy, along with all the other amazing tutors we had over the 2 years.

 

For me, the first year of Handshake was about finding my feet in a home workshop, without all the cool tools I’d been used to when studying.  It was also about expanding my community and developing confidence.  I threw myself into to programme whole heartedly, I didn’t see much of friends or family, completing my homework assignments with enthusiasm.  At the end of it, I had developed as a maker….but also had to face the fact that Mum’s Alzheimer’s had taken a bit more of a hold and if I didn’t step-up I would miss this precious time of lucidity with her.  So I made the decision to bring the two big challenges in my life together.

But… How do you spend a year thinking about dementia without getting completely depressed?  How do I shift my attitude from overwhelmed to accepting?

As well as broadly researching the disease, I tried to focus on positive articles to do with medical breakthroughs, understanding the contributing lifestyle factors that come in to play, as well as beneficial ways to interact with and continue to appreciate your loved one.

To get the creative process going …Music seemed like the best place to start. It was a prevalent part of my childhood and Mum was the instigator.

She was in an amateur operatics theatre group before I was born and was always singing around the house. I too caught that bug, and remember her telling me to stop singing and go to sleep when I was a kid.

Mum was also the parent who said go-for-it! …when on a ¼ life crisis trip back to NZ from the UK, I decided to try out for music school as a singer – up to that point I’d sung Karaoke in public 3 times. That decision, while naive, changed the course of my life.

So, that’s the backstory.

I think lyrics are a good way to distill down ideas.  Most of the song (A Matter of Time © Rachael Chapman 2024) I wrote at the beginning of the year, intentionally leaving the end 2 phrases until the later part of 2024.  I wanted to see what had shifted.

Using these musical and lyrical landscapes to create the atmosphere, I then explored many material and form possibilities to try and re-express the music in object form.

When I look back at all the dead ends and rabbit holes I went down, its quite funny to see how paired back (for me) and minimal the end result was.

For a long while I was obsessed with the lyric ‘ I wish we could stay here – our head in the clouds’ so many cloud forms were played with but nothing felt quite right.  When my mentor suggested brain forms might be a more relatable connection to explore, initially I was despondent, I think this was about 4 months out from the exhibition, kinda late to change lanes.  As ever, it all worked out for the best and I’m really glad we went that way.  I’m sure there will be cloud form moment in another exhibition.

I did have much bigger plans for the project but now realise that it required a 2-3 year timeframe to do, especially while holding down a full time job. Yes, I do wish I’d landed on the dementia plan a year earlier.

My mentor, Katrin Spranger was awesome.  She is one of the coolest people I’ve met, almost intimidatingly so. As the co-founder of the K2 Contemporary Jewellery Academy on London, she juggles, business, motherhood and her thriving art practice – I think she was in 3 shows in 2024.  Just the role model I needed – nothing was too bizarre, everything was explored, play encouraged. Honest feedback given.

 

Towards the end of the making period I did need to shut down external voices and follow my intuition. We’re hopping to have our final catch-up in person, next time I’m in London.

In the end the works sum up the song refrain that resonated the most ‘ A Matter Of Time’. Key connectors being the double meaning of Matter alongside Time being our nemesis in so many ways this year.

4 Pendants, made to rest on the heart space, small and intimate (by my standards) each depicting one of the words in the refrain.  Multilayered to reflect the facets and layers of concern.  Silver and brass – hard metals that weather and change patina over time, their colours connecting to silver linings (always there in life if you look for them)  Brass, expresses a line towards the end of the song ‘this time – is more golden than gold’.  Each piece was made to play with shadows…because initially, I imagined dementia as a shadowed land, a liminal place of existence.

I tried to make the forms and the display approachable.  The intention was not to scare or shock people, but pull them in. To share. To connect.  I know it’s a difficult subject and that everyone’s journey through dementia is different.  I hoped that, like a sad love song can help with heartbreak, others would relate.

Personally, I came out the other side with a much more appreciative relationship with my Mum – we’re closer than ever. It was awesome to make and capture lots of cool memories.  She sang the intro on the song (a lullaby from my babyhood), and since then has gifted my brother and I with recordings of other songs she sang to us as babies – treasures.  I know the coming years will be challenging (thats just life) but this time has been most precious.

 

Memory Game:  lets try to remember where we gathered these rocks from ….