Sarah Walker-Holt: Artist Statement & Bio

Conversant with a Life Lived 2023 (As a part of 'Handshake 2024')

A crisscross of processes, local materials, environment, and cultures through 50 years of being ‘Kiwi’. 

Fruit Salad 2020 (As a part of 'Handshake 2020')

Influenced by traditional hand-drawn and drafting methods, that use structural and functional knowledge of materials, composition and wearability, Sarah Walker-Holt generates formative drawings that she then uses to produce distinctive jewellery. In an effort to comprehend and reinterpret the initial stage of drawing the pieces are taken from their drawn state through an impromptu rendering process of materials and techniques, at the bench, that allows for a less formal and liberal interpretation.

Since 2010, Sarah Walker-Holt has been testing the tactile qualities of wearable objects through wood that have intermittently incorporated mechanisms, print, textiles and moving image.

“From questioning the value bestowed in the materiality of everyday, precious, and non-precious timbers, I alter them into something complex and decorative for the body. Essentially, deconstruction, construction and engineering shaped my approach as I was intrigued by structural fabrication and how things work. More recently, I have become attentive to the sustainability of my materials and challenging the authenticity of where and what I source.”

Sarah Walker-Holt completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Auckland University, MSVA in 2010, where she received numerous prizes including the Fingers Graduating Students Award. In 2011, she won the New Zealand Contemporary Jewellery Award. Walker-Holt has exhibited nationally and internationally, and featured in the Dowse Art Museum’s travelling exhibition, Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery. In 2014–2015 she was mentored by Helen Britton for Handshake 2: Prentice and Prodigy and was successively selected for Handshake 3 in 2016–2017. In 2016 she travelled to Europe as a participant in multiple Handshake exhibitions and a masterclass with Helen Britton. In 2019, she was again selected for Handshake 5, presenting at CODA and Te Uru.

https://www.sarahwalker-holt.com/

Mandy Flood: Artist Statement & Bio

The sum of the whole is the premise for this series of rings.

No rockstar gem or expensive precious metal has been used in the making of the series. Each piece comes from a single sheet of hand cut copper.The copper has been hand manipulated and fired many times. Each ring is unique, but comes from the same beginings. The value is in the unquiness and time spent.

Mandy Flood left Birmingham in 1985 for Liverpool. After gaining a  B.Ed (hons) in Design Education and teaching for 6 years she went travelling. In 1998 she arrived in Auckland , NZ. Flood completed a B.A in Contemporaray Craft in 2012. She jointly established Whau Studios in 2014. Flood was a participant in Handshake 4. She was paired with Volker Atrops.

The urban vernacular is her constant interest and reference.

Nik Hanton: Artist Statement & Bio

What was deemed to be valuable is changing as individuals around the planet move to more ecologically friendly alternatives to traditional riches. No longer is jewellery just a diamond set in gold. As our personal values change people are investing in resources that were not previously seen of worth. With this, the concept of what qualifies as 'precious' is being altered."

Using the age old materials and techniques of leather, wood, binding, and hand painting Nik revisits the methods, reshapes them, and tries to bring them into a modern context. Most recently she has been working with 3D printing using plant-based filaments which she feels fits well with this ethos of bringing jewellery techniques into the now.

After studying Sociology and Psychology Nik worked for a number of years in a variety of Media industries before following her passion for jewellery. Her background in the social sciences is evident in her work which explores the themes associated with these disciplines.

In 2015 she completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts majoring in Contemporary Jewellery from Whitireia NZ, received the Fingers Gallery Graduate Award and won the ECC / Dowse student Craft/Design Award for Jewellery from The Village Goldsmith. Her graduate work was part of the Galerie Marzee International Graduate show. 

Exhibitions:

UPCOMING
2020 Atta Gallery -10 year anniversary show, Bangkok, August

PAST
2020 Athens Jewellery Week, Greece, 26 - 31 May
2020 Melting Point, Alliages, Valencia, Spain, April 30 - May 3
2020 Broken Beauty, Alliages, Munich, Germany, (Schmuck Week)
2019 Jewellery and Anatomy, Tincal Lab, Porta, Portugal, Oct
2019 Broken Beauty, Alliages, Illes, France, Dec
2019 Jewellery and Anatomy, Tincal Lab, Porta, Portugal, Oct/Dec
2019 HS in dialogue with CODA collection, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, Sep-Dec
2019 Multiples, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands Sep-Dec
2019 A Jewellers Game, Studio One, Auckland, Dec
2019 SPACE Collaboration, Te Uru Contemporary Gallery, Auckland
2019 no thing (Solo), The SeeHere, Wellington, February/March
2018 Chaos, Alliages, Madrid, Spain, Nov - Dec
2018 Latent, Online exhibition (Solo) as part of Handshake 4, Dec
2018 Chaos, Melting Point, Alliages, Valencia, Spain, May
2018 SUPERPOSITION, Stanley Street Gallery, Melbourne, April
2018 Process, Handshake 4, Toi Poneke, Wellington, March
2018 Impossible Architecture (Solo), The SeeHere, Wellington, March
2018 Chaos, Alliages, Schmuck, Munich, March
2018 Process, Handshake 4, Toi Poneke, Wellington, March
2018 CHAINreaction, Atta Gallery, Bangkok, Jan- Feb
2018 Chaos, Alliages, Lille, France, Dec
2017 Leanings, Handshake 4, Pah Homestead, Auckland Oct - Dec
2017 Música, Tincal Gallery, Portugal, Oct
2017 Alumni Show, Fingers Gallery, Auckland, Oct
2017 Climate Of Thought (Solo), Radiant Pavilion, Melbourne, Aug - Sept
2017 Graduate Metal XV Show, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, Aug - Sept
2017 So Fresh + So Clean: 4th Annual Ethical Metalsmiths International Award Show, Sept
2017 Nexus (Solo), Quoil Gallery, Wellington, Feb
2017 Wearable Expressions 7th International Exhibition, Palos Verde Art Center, California, Jan - April
2016 'Continuum'(Solo), The See Here, Wellington
2016 The 3rd International Biennial of Contemporary Metal Art, METALLOphone:Bonds, (AV17) Gallery, Lithuania
2016 Marzee International Graduate Show, Netherlands | link
2016 Fingers Graduate Award Exhibition, Auckland | link 2016 Playthings, Arts Council Nelson, Nelson
2016 Molly Morpeth 3D Award Show, Whakatāne Museum, Whakatāne | link
2016 Locked Rooms (Solo) Toi Pōneke, Wellington Arts Center | install | opening | toi poneke interview
2016 The Way of Matter, ObjectSpace, Auckland
2016 Four(tune), Quoil Gallery, Wellington
2016 Whio, Quoil Gallery, Wellington
2015 Toast Exhibition, Pataka Art Museum, Porirua
2015 Vivien Atkinson's Salon Rouge, Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland
2015 R.A.W. Gallery One on Eight, Auckland
2015 Tales Untold (Solo), Visual Culture, Wellington | install | opening
2015 Tactile, In Good Company, Wellington
2015 Time Ripened, reSPACE, Wellington
2015 Corrugated Colour, Visual Culture, Wellington
2015 Guild Gallery, Dunedin
2014 12+ Artists 12+ Days Exhibition, reSPACE, Wellington
2014 Hoot Exhibition, reSPACE, Wellington
2014 Cahoot Exhibition, Toi Pōneke, Wellington Arts Center
2014 Friends of Pataka, Arts Award Exhibition, Pataka Art Museum, Porirua
2013 By my Hand, New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington
2013 Contemporary Wellington: A jewellery sampler, Occupation Artist Gallery, Wellington

Kylie Sinkovich: Artist Statement & Bio

Held Space

Containment of open space has been a line of inquiry for this project. Sinkovich explores Japanese design and architecture sensibilities around creating sacred space and the practice of ‘holding space’. In this instance, for a jewellery piece to be held. Traditionally jewellery boxes were decorative vessel's with the function of concealment in order to preserve its contents. Influenced by early Shinto sites of worship which celebrate natural features in the wild rather than grand structures, she has engaged an approach of simplicity and vastness into these ‘open space containers’.

Sinkovich’s practice is informed by a sensitivity to materials used and creates objects that connect with the body on both physical and intellectual levels. Her work focuses on the socio-political landscape, sustainability of life systems and the psycho-spiritual realms. She is drawn to the practice of installation and how an environment can activate both an object and audience’s emotional response to a work.

Kylie Sinkovich is a contemporary jeweller based in Auckland with a project driven practice spanning the last 9 years. With a background in photography and design, she graduated in 2015 with an advanced Diploma in Jewellery and is a past Handshake Project mentee and has exhibited in New Zealand over the last 7 years.

Sandra Schmid: Artist Statement & Bio

Void

Eyes closed; all I can see is void

A void is considered to have no value or authority; it is described as empty, useless, worthless. This collection looks into the juxtaposition of material value and visual void.

Having immigrated to New Zealand in 2006, the concepts of belonging and identity, explored through various endemic materials and techniques, are a constant presence in Sandra Schmid’s work.

In 2014 Schmid completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts majoring in Contemporary Jewellery from Whitireia NZ, received the Fingers Gallery Graduate Award, won the Australian and New Zealand Graduate Metal Award XIV and the ECC/Dowse student Craft/Design Award for Jewellery from The Village Goldsmith. Schmid's work has been selected for the Galerie Marzee International Graduate show as well as for prestigious national and international contemporary jewellery exhibitions in Italy, China, Holland, Australia and throughout New Zealand. She was part of Handshake4, in which she was mentored by the Estonian Jeweller Tanel Veenre, as well as Handshake 5 with exhibitions at CODA Apeldorn/Holland and TeUru Auckland/NZ. In 2019 she opened SCHMID Gallery/Workshop which is dedicated to contemporary art and jewellery.

Kristin D'Agostino: Artist Statement & Bio

The Take Away Series evolved out of a situation of mutual joy and delight, conflict and antagonism. Migration and dislocated family meant life-style changes between generations.  The arrival of a baby (or two) was heralded by ‘take-away containers’ rather than freezers full of home cooked food from relatives.  The shift may not be ideal, but it has fuelled new thinking. My source of inspiration is practical and domestic, the butter chicken take-away container deconstructed and celebrated.

Kristin began her jewellery career after immigrating to Auckland New Zealand from the US.  She has had the honour of showing at SCHMUCK 2013, Handwerksmesse, Munich, Germany, the Beijing International Jewellery Art Biennale, as well as a number group shows in New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, and the US.

She enjoys exploring the boundaries of jewellery by making, curating, writing and instigating local projects.  She is an Editor for Overview magazine, a founding member of the Jewellers Guild of Greater Sandringham, the current Art Jewellery Forum Ambassador to NZ and serving on the board of directors for Objectspace Gallery.

Vivien Atkinson: Artist Statement & Bio

Vivien Atkinson

Continuing her interest in the everyday routines of past domestic life, in this work Atkinson looks at the practice of darning. Clothing and textiles were not always the throw- away commodity they have become today, prolonging the use of these items was essential. Aware also of the damage done by brooch pins, she mends the holes using vintage gold threads to create a new ‘brooch’ that subverts the idea of jewellery’s mobility.

Vivien Atkinson, was born in Australia but is now based in Wellington, New Zealand. She has degrees in Fine Art (Massey University, RMIT) and Applied Art (Whitereia). Her practice is informed by both discourses and an interest in research. Projects deal with memory, identity, and social history and are resolved through a variety of media, including installation, video, sound work, jewellery and performance.

Becky Bliss: Artist Statement & Bio

Handshake 2024

Both New Zealand and Australian colonialism saw large-scale land confiscation, displaced indigenous peoples, loss of cultural identity and erosion of traditional practices.

Displacement is associated with climate change as well as forced migration due to conflicts etc. In the Pacific the Maldives, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands are currently most at threat with around 4mm of sea rise annually and the populations in these countries will be forced to migrate. Tuvali already has a planned exit strategy.

Changing weather, water levels and heat are forcing migration in many towns and communities in New Zealand and around the world.
I am using the Lego block as a symbol for displacement by moving and deleting the studs.

LEGO is a collaborative game. It’s name comes from the Danish phrase leg godt (“play well”). Now more than ever we need to play well together.

Becky Bliss graduated from Whitireia New Zealand in 2010 and is also a graphic designer.

Her current works look at social issues such as global warming, fair pay and equal employment opportunities.

She was a participant in Handshake 1, 3, and 5 and the current HS7, as well as Handshake alumni exhibitions, in the New Zealand/German Wunderrüma exhibition, and an exhibitor in Schmuck 2020 in Munich and Valencia, and Schmuck 2015 in Munich and Prague and the New Zealand Jewellery exhibition at Gallery Marzee, The Netherlands.

She is in collections at Te Papa Tongarewa, The Doswe Art Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum, and several private collections

Caroline Thomas: Artist Statement & Bio

"My practice is driven by the forces of material, language, humour and experimentation. I accumulate found materials around me until new relationships suggest themselves. My past working life as an image researcher, where I often had to select one image as a means of encapsulating a larger story, has enabled me to distill complicatedideas into a single form or handful of materials. I enjoy transforming existing objects - that have already lived a life - to find them new partners and add layers to their experiences."

Caroline was born in London, UK in the 1960s to Kiwi parents. She studied History of Art at Edinburgh University and worked as an image researcher in London in the publishing industry for several years. She moved to Aotearoa in 2007 and studied contemporary jewellery at Whitireia NZ from 2011-13. Since then, she has exhibited widely at home and internationally and is a current member of The See Here and Occupation: Artist. She has also participated in the HandShake jewellery mentoring programme.

Kelly McDonald: Artist Statement & Bio

Blurrily focussing around the edges of the ‘jewelleryness of jewellery’, this work aims for an aesthetic balance between art and craft, the wall and the body, and the gutter and high value. 

McDonald takes pleasure in the poetry of simple things, excavating meaning from otherwise discarded useful objects and softening the hardest edges of utilitarian design. Working in series, McDonald draws out the potential for new meanings in our daily encounters with objects, coaxing subtle affinities and delicate perceptions of difference from her rhythmic constellations and typologies of form. By working in this way, McDonald hopes to endow objects with a greater sense of their lived-with experience, and in particular, what they then might reveal about the lives and labours of women. 

Kelly McDonald completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts (1997). Since 2004 McDonald has been based in Wellington, New Zealand, where she was a tutor in the contemporary jewellery programme at Whitireia New Zealand (2007-2019), a selected participant in several iterations of the Handshake mentoring project (2014 – 2019) and completed her Masters of Visual Art at Massey University (2019).   

McDonald’s work has been included in Schmuck, Munich (2017), and Wunderruma, an international touring exhibition curated by Karl Fritsch and Warwick Freeman. Her recent exhibitions include The Mother Lode with Victoria McIntosh, exhibited as part of Radiant Pavilion, Melbourne, Australia (2019), solo exhibitions TOOL LOOT & The Mother Lode, at The National, Christchurch and Portraits, at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, both in 2018. 

Lisa Higgins: Artist Statement & Bio

Much of my work is material led, referencing what has gone before and reinterpreting this through material choice and abstraction of familiar forms.

I enjoy using materials in a way not previously intended, combining contrasting elements for a twist on the traditional and evoking in the viewer a curiosity of how these pieces came to be.

"To mark an occasion, to match an outfit, to remember/honour those that have past, to signify wealth, patriotism or unity, to protect and/or embolden, to quietly or loudly express one’s self…"

Caught in the space between old and new, Lisa Higgins melds transient fast fashion multiples with emotionally weighted heirloom treasures in an exploration of jewellery and the reasons why.

Lisa Higgins moved to New Zealand from the UK in 2003 and graduated with an Advanced Diploma (Jewellery) from Hungry Creek Art & Craft School in 2012.     

Lisa received the ‘NZ Jewellery Manufacturers Federation Award of Excellence’ in 2011, ‘Best in Show Graduate Award’ in 2012 and ‘Fingers Graduate Award’ in 2013. 

In 2014 she co-curated RE: (A Contemporary Jewellery Exhibition) showcasing the work of 7 emerging artists and in 2015 completed a 2-year mentorship program (Handshake2) with internationally renowned sculptor Cal Lane.

Lisa Higgins continues to show in a number of galleries and exhibition spaces throughout New Zealand and overseas. 

She currently lives and works in Auckland.