musings

Yonic, Gestaltwerk 1:2 Melbourne 2010, Embellishment, Jewellery Therapy My current investigation is, as it has always been, the body. Jewellers consistently site the body as source of inspiring dialogue - objects we create are realised in their placement. A fresh understanding of this has re-informed my praxis, contextually from post-structural feminist sensibilities, to seek out a dynamic interplay/potential for jewellery as a site of investigation. My current body of work is exploring the unique aspects of the body and the manners in which that might form an aesthetic language. From a past practice of being drawn to explore materiality as a source of tension, I have developed a desire to broaden notions of jewellery as wearable and indeed tangible, particularly with relevance to the body as subjective. Languages of the body are primordial, individual, simultaneously incomprehensible yet instantly semiotic. What do objects speak to, and of, the wearer?

Glass/Latex. Wool/Bone. Explorations of sensual, bulbous and evocative forms, using materials with a gendered intention. In my work I seek dispersion of aesthetic and intellectual binaries, and in such make intimate and abstract discoveries through explorations of sensual aesthetics. Manmade/organic. Nature often wins because naturalism of sensality is paramount in my work. Yet the juxtaposition of material inspirations is also demanding, it can be heralded or solved quietly. Hard/Soft. Still/Fluid. Man/Woman. The interconnection of duality, or the 'spectrum' of human experience, intrigues and wants attention. It is the 'us' that must be allowed to flourish. The masculine within the feminine. The feminine within the masculine. My series 'Anima/Animus' seeks to explore these divisions, their potential interplay and their obvious symbiosis. As jewelery, such displays of synergy between aesthetic and concept are only realised with reception of the work. To me, the subject is key to understanding the true Anima/Animus. Pieces are made to be worn, they will dialogue.

The truth can be delicate and harmonising or bold and discomforting, I feel jewelery works much the same. It can create unique forms and vibrations which unsettle us. These sensations are the key to unearthing our inner selves. I want to ask, what hurts us? what heals us? what turns us on?