I viewed two exhibitions of jewellers from New Zealand recently in Melbourne.
Warwick Freeman, an elder statesman, a ‘pioneer of contemporary New Zealand jewellery’ (from Helen Schamroth 100 New Zealand Craft Artists) exhibited LIFE SENTENCE selected brooches from 1990 - 2002 at gallery Funaki. At Craft Victoria Kirsten Haydon presented her first solo exhibition in Australia in the drawer. An exhibition of jewellery and objects the scale ranging from miniature to life size. In considering these exhibitions by two New Zealand jewellers I noted that there was a shared iconography, a conceptualising of identity and place, signified through material, process and emblematic forms.
Despite having nationality in common there is a generation of difference between the careers of these makers. Freeman began his practice in the 1970’s and is largely self-taught gaining his experience by working in manufacturing and contemporary workshops. This was not unusual in New Zealand for his generation of jewellers. In the seventies they pioneered the use of the materials, techniques and symbolic motif of the Pacific region as a contemporary form of expression. Ideologically organised and motivated they endeavoured to redeem indigenous artefact from the tourist trinket trade and through this practice instituted a vernacular that was promoted throughout the 80’s as the unique style of New Zealand contemporary jewellery.*
In contrast Haydon graduated in 1999 from the Manukau Institute of Technology a course established in New Zealand fifteen years ago. This institute has been influential in shifting the ‘attitude’ in regard to appropriate promotion and use of indigenous iconography in contemporary craft. Rather than work within the existing jewellery cannon, one of an idealised unified Pacific style, the work and practice of the next generation of jewellers is stylistically diverse, drawing upon broader critiques and influences of contemporary New Zealand culture. But in a sense there is continuity between these generations, they both respond to/engage with their environment and their culture. However since the 1990’s the cultural environment within which they work has gone through a radical shift in identity.** The iconography of these two exhibitions illustrates this shift but they also illustrate some of the anxieties that surround it.
For his exhibition LIFE SENTENCE Freeman has selected nineteen brooches made between 1990 and 2002. His survey is presented in a linear sequence, like a densely packed line of text. Executed in materials such as stone, shell, plastic, gold and silver the sentence is punctuated with symbolic icons, bird, heart, star, poppy, leaf etc. Viewers who are familiar with Freeman’s work will remember elements of this sequence from previous exhibitions, although pieces like ‘skull’ have been reproduced in a different material, paua shell as apposed to bone.
The aesthetic premise that Freeman chose to order these pieces interested me and he challenges the viewer to make something of it, to read it. What can be read into LIFE SENTENCE, is it autobiographical? (Although like the recent autobiography of Cheryl Kernot, is the story subject to self-editing?) While Freeman provokes us to find a message in this particular ordering of signs and materials, I found my curiosity was not contained by its margins.
As a survey of works LIFE SENTENCE documents a refined craft practice, the works are masterly executed and the aesthetic is pleasing. However, I was familiar with a number of these works, some of which I have previously reviewed and I found myself more interested in Freeman’s stated selection criteria, ‘what looks right’. Given the aesthetic criteria that determined their selection I wondered what pieces were left out, didn’t make the grade or fit the picture. It might be a coincidence, (because no other reason is given for this survey) that the period from which Freeman makes his selection, 1990 - 2002, marks the duration of New Zealand bi-culturalist policy. 1990 was the sesquicentenary of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, the anniversary from which the people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) accessed the racial dynamics between Pakeha (Europeans) and Maori and thus defined the countries identity as a bi-culturalist nation despite the fact that it is a pluralist society. In 1990 New Zealanders were invited to adopt the ‘spirit’ of bi-culturalism, but over time the issues of land rights, equal political and media representation and self determination have provoked public debate and bi-culturalism has been a hotly contested issue.
If we are to read jewellery as a sign, then what is it a sign of? As a jeweller Freeman has been applauded for his ability to confront issues of appropriation and identity from a post-colonial point of view, but this analysis of his work does not hold for me. Freeman’s work isn’t about ‘confronting’ or ‘probing’, rather what Freeman does extremely well is to reference and blend Maori, Pacific and Western iconography. This produces an aesthetically pleasing result showing no signs of incongruity. This process has been refined over time through Freeman’s selective criteria of ‘what looks right’. It is a familiar intention and reminds me of other popular forms of mythologising multiculturalism. We like to identify with this myth because it presents us and our culture in a palatable form. We celebrate cultural blending as part of our new identity; pizza with pineapple is celebrated here much like chips with curry sauce are in the UK. It symbolises our acceptance of the other but our acceptance is always conditional, ‘what looks right’ is an example of this.
Freeman's aesthetic expression has universal appeal but what makes his practice interesting is how it regionally locates, and how it has been shaped over time by cultural context and concerns. Whether intentional or not, appropriate or not, references to culture and identity are recurring themes in the work produced by New Zealand jewellers.
Installation shot from Kirsten Haydon in the drawer
Kirsten Haydon's exhibition in the drawer offers up another example from different perspective. Similarly Haydon employ’s emblems such as poppies, leaves, crosses to express her ideas, but her imagery is largely guided by a commitment to remembrance explored through the life and experiences of her grandfather and grandmother. This exhibition is the product of Haydon’s study in Melbourne for her masters in Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT. Despite the academic requirements of this work the exhibition presents as an intently personal exploration, homage to family and place. Momentos from her grandparent’s experience of World War II, domesticity, and passage of life were eulogised through material, form and process. Traditional gold and silversmithing were incorporated along with inter-disciplinary techniques such as printmaking and textiles.
The works were presented in drawers, on tables and it required some effort to view. At times you were obliged to step up ladders, peer into drawers, and put on gloves. The intention was to create an environment suggestive of a museum, to treat the object / memory as artefact.
The works were skilfully made and the installation well considered but there were instances when I found the literal symbology of some works inhibited my experience. One exception was the group of slide boxes with the photocopied image of the Auckland Bridge under construction, printed across their collective surface. Image, process and form were in playful signification with each other in this instance.
My engagement with this exhibition took me on a journey within the gallery space. I empathised with the nostalgic theme when objects, like the feijoa vessel and the rosemary fantail, triggered a connection to my own experience of the country of my birth. This was reassuring and made me think about how objects unite us in shared memories. However my attention was drawn to objects that, in defiance of the artist's intention, opened a dialogue with my current concerns for the country in which I am now naturalised.
The prevalence of boats in particular triggered this. They were rendered in whitened and oxidised silver, as miniature brooch/pendant’s and in larger forms of printed and sewn paper. The boat form was a significant component of Haydon’s exhibnition, they were arranged, as a line forming a bridge or positioned as vulnerable vessels on thinly legged plinths. Haydon’s titles suggested specific periods or experiences of her grandfather's life, however they reminded me of how powerful significant boats are in the collective New Zealand psyche. An isolated island country surrounded by water, the image of the sea tossed boat was a popular visual image in early colonialist art and reflected the binding relationship between the people and the sea. In contemporary life boating is a popular pass time particularly of the northern north islanders. New Zealanders' performance in ocean yacht racing such as the Whitbread and the America’s Cup have been nationally unifying as well as economically prosperous events. In recent times the attention of the Australian population has also been preoccupied with boats, although it seems ironic that it is those flimsy in structure and found in a distressed state that appear to threaten or undermine Australia’s concept of national security.
When contemplating the iconography of Haydon’s work I also found the use of or reference to indigenous Pacific iconography. In particular the glasshouse piece, almost life size in scale, incorporated photographic transparencies, one image depicted a Maori Pa. I have no doubt that this image was congruous to the theme but it would have seemed appropriate to name and acknowledge its presence in the title and price list.
Craft is a tangible expression of living culture and identity, and working through such issues is an ongoing process. The orthodoxy of Freeman’s generation of jewellers has been revised and publicly challenged but it would seem the process has still a way to go. These two exhibitions provided an opportunity to view this process in an Australian context at a time when the shape of our own cultural identity is in a questionable form. There is much to be learnt about ourselves from viewing the craft of our friends and neighbours.
* Fingers gallery was set up in Auckland as a collective of jewellers in 1974. Freeman joined in 1978. The exhibition Stone Bone and Shell a international travelling exhibition toured to Melbourne in 1989
** Douglas Loyd Jenkins, a lecturer in design History at Manukau, refers to this shift in attitude in his essay for the catalogue Pretty by Workshop Six published in 1998
For more images of Kirsten Haydon's exhibition, click here.
