Bodywork

Australian Jewellery 1970–2012

Exhibition
7 Sept 2013 – 20 Oct 2015
Gold Armband with ray like decoration on the outside

Brenda Ridgewell, Space edifice, armband, 2002, purchased 2003

About

The celebration of the local, the regional, the private and the personal, and the value of experience and memory, is territory that many contemporary jewellery designers and makers seek to articulate and make real.

Jewellers preside over the manipulation of materials and the transformation of their meaning and value. Design involves working on a small scale in relation to the intimate site of the human body and exercising advanced craft skills to bring a variety of materials together as desirable and durable objects. The juxtaposition of materials, the recycling of objects and the subversion of traditions can also bring a new understanding to familiar forms and imbue everyday materials with a poetic presence.

This exhibition includes the work of 42 Australian jewellers exploring jewellery from a number of viewpoints within six broad themes: Romanticism, Interpreting the Vernacular, Encapsulating Nature, Technics, Social Message and Sculpture for the Body. All of the works are from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

Curator: Dr Robert Bell AM

Touring Dates and Venues

  • The Moree Gallery, NSW
    7 September – 3 November 2013
  • Glasshouse Regional Gallery, NSW
    22 November 2013 – 2 February 2014
  • Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery, SA
    28 February – 4 May 2014
  • Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA
    29 August – 12 October 2014
  • Devonport Regional Gallery, TAS
    6 November – 7 December 2014
  • Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, NSW
    13 March – 26 April 2015
  • Artspace Mackay, QLD
    22 May – 4 July 2015
  • Rockhampton Art Gallery, QLD
    18 July – 23 August 2015
  • Craft ACT, ACT
    6 September – 20 October 2015

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