Jewellery That Breaks Tradition
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday November 26, 1993
ONE of the most vital areas within contemporary Australian craft is the art of jewellery. At its finest, contemporary jewellery is much more than simply threading beads onto a string. Like other art-forms, it tackles a range of conceptual and practical problems, and many objects being produced bear little resemblance to what we traditionally consider wearable.
Contemporary jewellery practice involves the use of drawing, design, and the manipulation of materials. Often the materials and techniques used are a departure from traditional notions of jewellery, as is evident from exhibitions showing in three Sydney galleries.
At the Sherman Hargrave Gallery, Paddington, is work by Carlier Makigawa. At Artspace in Woolloomooloo is Interstices, a retrospective exhibition of work from 1981 to 1992 by Margaret West.
And around the corner from Artspace, at the Woolloomooloo Gallery, is Metalurges, an annual exhibition of jewellery and objects by nearly 50 jewellery design students from the Sydney Institute of Technology, Randwick.
Interstices is a touring exhibition from the Canberra School of Art Gallery, curated by Julie Ewington.
West, who is head of jewellery and object design at Sydney College of the Arts, has produced an exquisitely crafted body of work which, Ewington says, explores the artist's interest in "body-related objects" and their relationship with the wearer.
West uses a range of materials: slate, stainless steel, stone, wood and lead. She brings out the intrinsic beauty of these materials and then often contrasts them with more natural materials.
For instance, Five Caskets For Galah (Cacatua roseicapilla), consists of five small iron caskets, or boxes, each filled with wisps of pink galah feathers. Or Seven Caskets For Red Sand consists of two granite and five marble caskets filled with red sand. The effect is one of mystery and bizarre ritual.
Other works, such as Soar, a box made of lead and wood with a selection of gold leaf leaves inside, reminds me of the personal treasure troves of childhood.
West's concern with the potency of symbols, signs and alchemy is further evident when she inscribes her surfaces with diagrams and formulas. These often seem to make reference to computer technology, as in Equation - Hard Discs.
Other works also remain clearly in the mind after you've left the gallery, such as Bib, a bib of lead and stainless steel, or her elegant Four Veils of lead and stainless steel.
But the imagination is also taken with West's simple yet effective hanging stones, as in Eight Stones With Steel, or her Slough, a man's silhouette, made of lead, which lies at the entrance to the gallery to catch the unwary.
Other contemporary jewellery which challenges our perceptions can be seen at an exhibition by Makigawa downstairs at the Sherman Hargrave Gallery.
Compared with West's, Makigawa's pieces are, at first glance, perhaps more wearable as jewellery. But in many cases they could easily be multifunctional, serving as both tiny Constructivist-like sculptures and decorative objects.
Early in her career, Makigawa was interested in using a type of miniature architectural framework within which she placed one or more miniature objects
She then contrasted, on a miniature scale, man-made structures and organic forms. In Object, from 1981, she used a steel frame contrasted with pebbles wrapped with linen thread. Or in Brooch, from the same year, a steel frame contrasted with tiny pieces of bamboo wrapped with paper.
Now Makigawa uses a cage-like frame into which she sometimes places orb-shaped contents. The effect is harmonious, at times theatrical, with a play on scale.
Finishing this weekend at the Hogarth Galleries in Paddington is an exhibition of work by George Milpurrurru, as well as prints by the Ramingining artists.
Milpurrurru is a prolific, major bark painter from Ramingining in central Arnhem Land. He is a ceremonial leader of the Ganalbingu people. Two months ago he became the first Aboriginal artist to have a solo exhibition at Canberra's National Gallery of Australia and his work has been included in three Biennale exhibitions.
Milpurrurru's work tends to be characterised by intricate cross-hatching, which has been described by Wally Caruana, author of Aboriginal Art, as optical shimmering, suggesting, for example, the forces of the ancestral Fire and Water Dreamings which imbue Milpurrurru's country at Ngalyindi.
At Hogarth Galleries are some impressive works dating from 1989 to the present and many feature images from the major creation stories of Milpurrurru's clan.
Much of the work is figurative, reflecting the spiritual nature of the subject matter. Some compositions include conventional motifs and cross-hatching or rarrk. But there are figurative works which are more graphic, less detailed, involving less cross hatching, such as in Bari -Crocodiles.
Particularly significant are works such as Gurrumatji, Magpie Geese, Mewal, Dhuwa Moiety Honey Spirit (Mother's Dreaming), and Goose-Egg Hunting.
Overall, Milpurrurru's images reflect the classical tradition of bark painting but also reveal a contemporary vision.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald
