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).

Images courtesy of Objectspace

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.

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.

I am a Bricoleur

Touchable series

Materials: thread, plastic mesh, acrylic paint, brass, copper, silver

Materials: irrigation pipe, thread

Materials: wooden bowl, irrigation pipe, thread, acrylic paint, paper

An aspect of bricolage is where people obtain objects from one culture or context and use it to create new sub-cultures or identies. A well known example of this would be the Punk movement where the safety pin became a form of decoration. Likewise, New Zealand Contemporary Jewelleries Bone, Stone, Shell movement hybridised materials and processes from across cultural divisions to give new connotations that essentially questioned issues of preciousness, the use of non-traditional materials and techniques, a concept which strongly influences my own practice.

A resonating desire to touch

Through a continued investigation of my bricolage process, utilising banal materials that are at hand, scouting local hardware stores, second hand stores and markets I have strengthened and built on the compositional outcomes of my objects. A repetitive use of materials, using multiple dissected components has allowed me to assemble strange yet somehow familiar objects that allude to being handled or interacted with through a resonating desire to touch and investigate their intricate nature.

Metadecorative: New work by Mary Curtis

This week I have been very privileged in assisting Mary Curtis with her latest exhibit at Objectspace, Metadecorative: New work by Mary Curtis - 3 - 31 July 2010. http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/whatson.php The opening is tonight, 2 July at 6pm followed by an Artist talk on Saturday the 3rd at 11am. Mary’s jewellery is meticulous, I found myself drooling over it the first day, and it is definitely not a show to be missed! Mary is presenting the works in vitrines, museum cabinets and bell jars that project a sense of space and floating that allow you to view the work from all sides, the significance being that the back is as important as the front. Mary’s choice of patterns and materials are nostalgic and when framed with her acutely lacy metalwork it emphasises clearly the value and personal associations of popular décor and textiles of our past that slowly become lost.

'Broach Me' 7days-7wearers Project

This semester while continuing with bricolage, I have been looking at the space between wearer and viewer while positioning my objects more specifically on the body. I am interested in how wearing contemporary jewellery can affect your personal space and how everyday objects direct relationships.

As part of my experiments I decided to take a leaf from Kristin D’Agostino’s 'BOM' http://broachofthemonth.blogspot.com/ where she has 'created a project in an effort to reinstate the community aspect of traditional craft into the contemporary jewellery culture'. By appropriating Kristen's project, I hoped to use it as a tool that would help me understand the relationship between a wearer and viewer more clearly than just my preconceived perseptions as maker. 'Broach Me’ 7 days-7wearers', entailed one brooch and 7 willing jewellery makers, wearers and viewers from within MSVA to wear one of my brooch's for a day. Each wearer was expected to meet with the next wearer after a 24 hour period and past it on. The brooch came with a wee box and a note book where each wearer was asked to comment on how the brooch had affected their own body awareness and any interactions it had initiated with others.

Sinead and Lucy

" The brooch has a lot of movement and moves to the beat of the music on the radio with me"

Paula and Sharon

"I always wear my little bag on right shoulder, opps-careful of the brooch Paula!"

"Joey said ' That's really cool it's really in your face... well its in my face anyway."

Lucy

"Reuben and I did have a bit of fun with it, pretending to attack him and play out scenes from 'Dr Who'!

Darshini and Laura

"Deciding where to place it was difficult, didn't want to get stares in the wrong places."
"I'm not trying to touch you there, I just want to feel it - Vicky"

Jutta
"When I hugged my friend good-bye the brooch got caught in her jacket so we carefully had to seperate each other"

Through this 'mini-project' I hoped to bring awareness to how an object can direct decisions that a person makes and the relationships they have with others . Six of the seven participants are avid contemporary jewellery advocates and one, Jutta, was new. She was the one I got the most delight from, she was so excited to wear one of my brooches and very keen to show it off and make the most of it. Much to her dismay thought, wearing such a piece proved to be a challenge, even though I had relented slightly and decided to give the wearers a more practical rather than difficult one to wear for daily student life. All 7 wearers were wonderful, meeting each day to pass on the brooch and let me photograph the interaction, even when circumstances meant that an arranged meeting posed some difficulties. The brooch stood true as an object by making the wearer conscious of the world that is external to them and kept each participant to their word and directed their day, while better establishing relationships between us.

Thanks girls!!, and of coarse Kristen for your inspiration, it was a fun and enlightening week.