The first New Zealand Jewellery Triennial took place at Objectspace in Auckland, 10 September – 20 November 2022
AOTEAROA Jewellery Triennial
curator & artists bio
ESSAY & statement
NEWS & EVENTS
EXHIBITION images
curator & artists bio
ESSAY
NEWS & EVENTS
EXHIBITION images
The first Jewellery Triennial took place at Objectspace in Auckland, 10 September – 20 November 2022.
Opening and symposium event Fr 9 September 2022.
A Stone, an Echo, a Sign celebrates jewellery as a living practice that brings inherited ways of thinking and doing face-to-face with the present moment. Invested in how our actions, ideas and customs reverberate outside of our lifetimes, this exhibition suggests that to keep our inheritances alive and keep them vital, we have to continually reinterpret them through acts of making and remaking.
As the first in a series of triennial exhibitions developed by MAKERS 101, A Stone, an Echo, a Sign reflects its particular, complicated moment. Contemporary impulses are represented through six distinct Aotearoa makers, each of whom has produced new work for this exhibition. These makers have been selected for their engagement with the tension between the timely and timeless, working within the enduring tradition of jewellery and adornment.
‘A Stone, an Echo, a Sign: Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial’, is curated by Emma Ng and features new work by Becky Bliss, Raewyn Walsh, Neke Moa, Rowan Panther, Shelley Norton, Moniek Schrijer.
The Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial has been developed by Makers101 with Objectspace collaborating as the exhibition partner and supported by Creative New Zealand.
Exhibition design by Micheal McCabe
REVIEW by Connie Brown
The second Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial is planned for 8 March – 8 June 2025 at the Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū in Nelson. as part of the third Nelson Jewellery Week. MORE SOON
AJT ARTISTS:
Becky Bliss looks at social issues such as global warming, fair pay, and equal employment opportunities in her current works. She has been making works about climate change for several years, showing the change in our environment in a graphic way, and producing works that function as a kind of call to action.
About Becky
Becky Bliss graduated from Whitireia New Zealand in 2010, majoring in contemporary jewellery. She is also a practising graphic designer. She has been a participant in the Handshake Projects, in the New Zealand/German Wunderrüma exhibition, and an exhibitor in Schmuck 2020 in Munich and Valencia, and Schmuck 2015 in Munich and Prague. Her work is included in collections at Te Papa Tongarewa, The Dowse Art Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum, and several private collections.
A dialogue between humans and nature is ever-present in Raewyn Walsh’s work. Some pieces begin with organic materials such as shells and bone, gathered during walks, while others mimic natural forms. Raewyn is interested in how we alter the meaning and circulation of physical things – through acts of collecting, marking, and owning, as well as the way we imbue these objects with human-centric purpose.
About Raewyn
Raewyn Walsh is a jeweller who lives and works in Auckland. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, and is part of the collections at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Dowse Art Museum, among others. Raewyn graduated from Unitec with a Bachelor of Design (first class honours) in 2010 and was the 2011 winner of the Objective Art Awards.
(Ngāti Kahungunu ki Ahuriri, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa)
Working predominantly with pounamu and found materials, Neke Moa is an adornment and object artist committed to maintaining and uplifting Mana Motuhake – self determination and wairuatanga. Neke works to capture stories, allowing connections to ātua, tāngata, and tōhunga to flow through materials and the processes of making mahi toi.
About Neke
Neke Moa (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Ahuriri, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is based in Ōtaki. She has been part of the Handshake project since its inception in 2010, and has exhibited in Munich, London, Thailand, Australia, Netherlands, and Aotearoa. She is a graduate of Te Wānanga-ō-Raukawa and Whitireia NZ majoring in Māori art and jewellery design. Neke has taught shell craft in Fiji and Tonga from 2016 until 2020 and continues to teach and learn as part of her art practice.
Rowan Panther
Working consciously in an Aotearoa context, Rowan Panther brings contemporary Pacific interpretations to traditional European lace making – giving consideration to the complexities of colonisation and her own Irish/English/Samoan heritage. Rowan works primarily in muka, a raw fibre from the Harakeke plant, producing wearable adornments that draw on shapes and motifs from wider Moana Oceania, representing hybrid cultural traditions.
About Rowan
Rowan Panther completed a Diploma in Contemporary Photography from Unitec in 2002, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam in 2008. Her work is held in the collection of Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum, and she has exhibited in Aotearoa, London, and Paris. In 2021 she was a recipient of Dame Doreen’s Gift, awarded by the Blumhardt Foundation.
Shelly Norton
For over 20 years, Shelley Norton’s material of choice has been plastic shopping bags, which she knits, embroiders, and often melts into two- and three-dimensional jewellery forms. Inspired by Roland’s Barthes’s description of plastic as “abolishing the hierarchy of substances,” Shelley transforms the discarded into the desired. She seeks to create pieces that draw attention to existing knowledge, whilst at the same time liberating a degree of free association in the viewer’s consciousness.
About Shelley
Shelley Norton lives in central Auckland. Her making practice spans 20 years, and was supported by undertaking a BVA at Auckland University in the early 2000s. Her work has been included in exhibitions in Aotearoa and in Europe, and is held in the collections of Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum and the Dowse Art Museum.
Continuing to explore materiality and pull from the environment around her, Moniek Schrijer’s practice is currently focused on altering flat sheet metal. Ingeniously set materials are made to glow, reflecting and refracting light from a richly hand-painted surface, suspended or mounted these works melt dimensions and disciplines.
About Moniek
Moniek Schrijer holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts (2012) and a Post-Graduate Diploma from Whitireia New Zealand’s Facility of Art (2013). Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she was awarded a Herbert Hofmann Preis during Schmuck in München in 2016.
