1 August to 12 August 2011
Thanks to all those who came to the opening on Monday night, it is nice to know I am well supported by friends, peers and lecturers especially Fran Allison and Mary Curtis. It was also great to meet and catch up with the other graduates; Kvetoslava Flora Sekanova, Jessica Winchcombe and yang Zhang.
Check out the awesome images courtesy of Fingers;
http://www.fingers.co.nz/exhibition_program.htm
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
New Zealand Jewellery Show 2011
Some quick fire images of my piece before it flew to Wellington for the 2011 Contemporary Jewellery Awards where I am one of four finalist in this section with; Jane Dodd , Matthew McIntyre Wilson, Kvetoslava Flora Sekanova.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Neckware 8, Masterworks
Sarah Walker-Holt, Fiddlesticks, 2011wood, vintage thread, copper, brass
Embracing my bricolage practice, I have utilised and dissected wooden kitchen utensils and reconfigured them into a single piece of jewellery. By giving the wearer options as to how it can be worn initiates a relationship with the piece. I have not dictated which is the back or the front while at the same time it can be worn either around the neck, by unravelling the cotton, or as a brooch. The brooch pin is not apparent as it is a nut and bolt that is hidden within the two pieces that complete it. The nut and bolt are a motif within my work that once again speaks of bricolage, by taking this mechanism from its everyday context and subjecting it into another where it is not ordinarily understood.
Lucy Pierpoint is also in Neckware 8, demonstrating her desire to transform obsolete technology materials into something precious by unearthing a form of splendour that lies within.
Lucy Pierpoint, Defy Obsolescence ,2011, audio tape, silver plate
Lucy will also be exhibiting her exciting and alluring current exploration with discarded Television sceens at Masterworks. Thu, 28 Jul 11 - Wed, 24 Aug 11
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Brooch of the Month Club 2011
http://broachofthemonth.com/2011/06/29/sarah-walker-holt/
Currently I am pleased to relay that Kristin D'Agostino and her entourage have invited me to participate in the 3rd Annual collaborative BOM project. Having watched the scheme grow over the past 3 years I can see how it has evolved nicely, as I expected Kristen intended, bringing New Zealand Contemporary Jewellery makers together with it’s patrons and admirers, that in turn expose our unique creations to a broader audience.
In Peter Dormer’s and Ralph Turners 1994, Jewelry as Theatre: Radical Departures, they state that,
“We all know that jewelry, like anything else a person chooses to wear, tells us about that persons taste and personality. But jewelry is rarely used by jewelers to make comment about the conventions and taboos surrounding the making or wearing of it”.[1]
They go on to applaud Otto Künzli for, unlike others, addressing this as his context. As New Zealand contemporary jewelers of the 21st century this idea still prevails, purely from the perspective that as a culture the unawareness that is present around contemporary jewellery can be rather exasperating; I find myself consistently resisting the urge to justify to the layman why my art sits on the body.
People generally ask “why wear it?” but I ask “why not wear it?” One of the reasons I create my own pieces is a response to rejecting the “norm” or the “beige-ness” of a society in which I see us consumed. Just because a material object is created for a particular purpose doesn’t mean to say that this is where it should stay, I’m all for appropriating.
Doing something different takes courage and it is with great pleasure that I witness the pieces bravely worn by the wearers, commandeered by BOM, paraded in the wider community. I hope that this project antagonizes perceptions of what is acceptable or overlooked in our everyday, in the same way that fine art is used as a tool to question our awareness. Different isn’t something that should be treated with contempt but something that should be embraced and Kristen’s project definitely encourages this while exposing a great opportunity to constructively critique both the wearing and making of our work and hearten the contemporary jewellery community aspect of the applied arts.
[1] Dormer, P and Turner, R. (1994). Jewelry and dissent: Recent directions. In The New Jewelry: Trends+Traditions (rev.ed) (p178-184). London, England: Thames and Hudson
Currently I am pleased to relay that Kristin D'Agostino and her entourage have invited me to participate in the 3rd Annual collaborative BOM project. Having watched the scheme grow over the past 3 years I can see how it has evolved nicely, as I expected Kristen intended, bringing New Zealand Contemporary Jewellery makers together with it’s patrons and admirers, that in turn expose our unique creations to a broader audience.
In Peter Dormer’s and Ralph Turners 1994, Jewelry as Theatre: Radical Departures, they state that,
“We all know that jewelry, like anything else a person chooses to wear, tells us about that persons taste and personality. But jewelry is rarely used by jewelers to make comment about the conventions and taboos surrounding the making or wearing of it”.[1]
They go on to applaud Otto Künzli for, unlike others, addressing this as his context. As New Zealand contemporary jewelers of the 21st century this idea still prevails, purely from the perspective that as a culture the unawareness that is present around contemporary jewellery can be rather exasperating; I find myself consistently resisting the urge to justify to the layman why my art sits on the body.
People generally ask “why wear it?” but I ask “why not wear it?” One of the reasons I create my own pieces is a response to rejecting the “norm” or the “beige-ness” of a society in which I see us consumed. Just because a material object is created for a particular purpose doesn’t mean to say that this is where it should stay, I’m all for appropriating.
Doing something different takes courage and it is with great pleasure that I witness the pieces bravely worn by the wearers, commandeered by BOM, paraded in the wider community. I hope that this project antagonizes perceptions of what is acceptable or overlooked in our everyday, in the same way that fine art is used as a tool to question our awareness. Different isn’t something that should be treated with contempt but something that should be embraced and Kristen’s project definitely encourages this while exposing a great opportunity to constructively critique both the wearing and making of our work and hearten the contemporary jewellery community aspect of the applied arts.
[1] Dormer, P and Turner, R. (1994). Jewelry and dissent: Recent directions. In The New Jewelry: Trends+Traditions (rev.ed) (p178-184). London, England: Thames and Hudson
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Objectspace; Best in Show
2011 has brought a significant start to my professional development, as I was one of sixteen applied arts graduates chosen from tertiary institutions around New Zealand to exhibit in Objectspace’s - Best in Show 2011. http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/show.php?documentCode=2550
http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/works.php?documentCode=2556
Curator Matt Blomeley puts this annual event together and it is well worth visiting as it exposes New Zealand’s most recent emerging practitioners in their individual fields. Along with this years exhibit the students are to be showcased in the latest Threaded Magazine (issue 10).
http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/works.php?documentCode=2556
Curator Matt Blomeley puts this annual event together and it is well worth visiting as it exposes New Zealand’s most recent emerging practitioners in their individual fields. Along with this years exhibit the students are to be showcased in the latest Threaded Magazine (issue 10).
Images courtesy of Objectspace
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Situational Personalities
A conversation between Artist Sarah Walker-Holt & object wearer Lisa Carlin
SWH. I’m going to give you an object to wear and I’m going to explain to you how it works.
LC. I put a cardi on.
SWH. It completely comes apart.
LC. I see.
SWH. And you can reconfigure it.
LC. Oh, so I can design it?
SWH. Sort of, yeah, you can pick ‘n’ choose how many pieces you use and which ones you put together.
SWH. So when you wear it, because it’s not conventional in how it’s worn, you can push it through buttonholes, on jackets.
LC. Oh, ok. So this is the main piece?
SWH. Well, it can be what ever piece you want; you can have a piece on the inside of your cardigan.
LC. Ok.
SWH. And if you get one of the ones that have got like the button on it, so it works a bit like a button and buttonhole, you have to be prepared for it to stretch your cardigan, but it will go back.
LC. Oh, ok, that’s ok.
LC. I guess, I think, it would be, it’s quite good because your personality would come through, with the way that you put it on.
SWH. Yeah, it would, wouldn’t it.
LC. Because, if you were, like, quite a tidy perfectionist person, you would have one, but when you where not a perfectionist, you, I’d say you would quite like to have them like this, all over you.
SWH. That one, that one hasn’t got the knob on it.
LC. Right, this has a knob.
SWH. But you could undo your buttons and push the loop.
LC. So I quite like the idea of them spread around.
LC. There you go. I wonder if you could put that one through that one, loop it off like that – oh! It’s like a toy; it’s quite cool, isn’t it.
LC. I’d quite like to have one here, but can’t really attach it, unless, I push it through the wool, are you allowed to do that?
SWH. Yeah, yeah, but your cardigan isn’t like an open weave is it?
LC. So, you had all this on one brooch? I don’t know how you did it – now how did you do it, with um, which side did you have on the inside?
SWH. Ah, I would have had one flat one, one flatish one, on the inside, with a centre hole.
LC. It’s like a puzzle.
SWH. Um.
LC. Oh, I never tried to put it on one, there’s no way I could do that, try putting it all on one, there’s, I’ve got to try and make it before I put it on this time.
SWH. Yeah, that was – seems to be how I do it for some reason.
LC. Yeah, I automatically thought that you create it on you.
LC. It’s like treasure.
SWH. That, actually that’s, ah that’s nice coz I haven’t done it all dangly like that.
LC. Makes you realise all people are different, doesn’t it. Right I don’t know if I should add, should I add all of them on? Or stop?
SWH. Well I suppose you could always just see what it’s like at that point – decide how it hangs.
LC. Um, I need – to attach that to there – right – nearly ready.
LC. How’s that look? Ok?
SWH. Looks great.
LC. Now I haven’t used these ones, I’m sorry about that.
SWH. Haha.
LC. Yeah, it’s just that.
SWH. I’m going to give you an object to wear and I’m going to explain to you how it works.
LC. I put a cardi on.
SWH. It completely comes apart.
LC. I see.
SWH. And you can reconfigure it.
LC. Oh, so I can design it?
SWH. Sort of, yeah, you can pick ‘n’ choose how many pieces you use and which ones you put together.
SWH. So when you wear it, because it’s not conventional in how it’s worn, you can push it through buttonholes, on jackets.
LC. Oh, ok. So this is the main piece?
SWH. Well, it can be what ever piece you want; you can have a piece on the inside of your cardigan.
LC. Ok.
SWH. And if you get one of the ones that have got like the button on it, so it works a bit like a button and buttonhole, you have to be prepared for it to stretch your cardigan, but it will go back.
LC. Oh, ok, that’s ok.
LC. I guess, I think, it would be, it’s quite good because your personality would come through, with the way that you put it on.
SWH. Yeah, it would, wouldn’t it.
LC. Because, if you were, like, quite a tidy perfectionist person, you would have one, but when you where not a perfectionist, you, I’d say you would quite like to have them like this, all over you.
SWH. That one, that one hasn’t got the knob on it.
LC. Right, this has a knob.
SWH. But you could undo your buttons and push the loop.
LC. So I quite like the idea of them spread around.
LC. There you go. I wonder if you could put that one through that one, loop it off like that – oh! It’s like a toy; it’s quite cool, isn’t it.
LC. I’d quite like to have one here, but can’t really attach it, unless, I push it through the wool, are you allowed to do that?
SWH. Yeah, yeah, but your cardigan isn’t like an open weave is it?
LC. So, you had all this on one brooch? I don’t know how you did it – now how did you do it, with um, which side did you have on the inside?
SWH. Ah, I would have had one flat one, one flatish one, on the inside, with a centre hole.
LC. It’s like a puzzle.
SWH. Um.
LC. Oh, I never tried to put it on one, there’s no way I could do that, try putting it all on one, there’s, I’ve got to try and make it before I put it on this time.
SWH. Yeah, that was – seems to be how I do it for some reason.
LC. Yeah, I automatically thought that you create it on you.
LC. It’s like treasure.
SWH. That, actually that’s, ah that’s nice coz I haven’t done it all dangly like that.
LC. Makes you realise all people are different, doesn’t it. Right I don’t know if I should add, should I add all of them on? Or stop?
SWH. Well I suppose you could always just see what it’s like at that point – decide how it hangs.
LC. Um, I need – to attach that to there – right – nearly ready.
LC. How’s that look? Ok?
SWH. Looks great.
LC. Now I haven’t used these ones, I’m sorry about that.
SWH. Haha.
LC. Yeah, it’s just that.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The power of fragments
Living in a rural, coastal village I often walk and forage along unpaved roads and beaches. Pieces of broken and forgotten objects catch my attention and evoke further investigation into their origins and use value as a material. I analyse them in terms of manipulation, for example earlier this year I found fragments of plastic fencing and garden mesh on the beach and while rummaging through a white elephant stall started a collection of old wooden bowls, both inspiring structural materials that I currently use.
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