19 March 2010
European treasure trove
Edwin “Buz” Aldrin and the Family Jewels. Five rings. California (?), circa 1969.
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An international exhibition featuring the work of 24 Australian jewellers and goldsmith artist-designers has been opened by Professor Elizabeth Grierson, Head of the School of Art, RMIT University, at the prestigious Galerie Handwerk in Munich, Germany.
Professor Grierson said the exhibition, Treasure Room Australia – Schatzkammer Australien, surveyed more than 30 years of contemporary jewellery design.
"Over this period we see two generations of contemporary jewellery artists, with the more senior artists – many of whom are also educators in art academies – handing on their knowledge to the younger or newer jewellery artists.
"The 24 artists in this exhibition were chosen because, as the curator says, they represent the 'diverse philosophies of artists practising now'," Professor Grierson said.
The exhibition was curated by Professor Robert Baines, coordinator of postgraduate gold and silversmithing and Deputy Head of Research in the School of Art, and lead researcher in the RMIT Design Research Institute.
Alongside is the exhibition of work by Professor Baines, The Schatzkammer: A Treasury of Evidence, exhibited most recently at Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt.
The showcase of contemporary jewellery design is sponsored by RMIT Design Research Institute, Intervention Through Art Program. This research program is concerned with art as a design process and the ways art intervenes in dominant ways of thinking about space, place and human habitation.
The exhibition runs parallel to the international jewellery show Schmuck 2010 at the International Crafts Fair in Munich.
Photos by Professor Robert Baines.
Freshwater Point jewellery hoard. Phoenician (?), circa last half of the seventh century BC. Gold.
Leg Brace for Lloyd. Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital, 2004.
