Body Layer; Semblance and Self

27 May - 17 July 2021

Zoe Brand | Roseanne Bartley | Liesbet Bussche | Jing He | Cara Johnson | Lauren Kalman | matt lambert | Claire McArdle | Kristina Neumann | Tiffany Parbs | Halie Rubenis 

Curator Simon Cottrell 
Researcher/Lecturer, ANU School of Art & Design.

This exhibition presents the works of 11 significant Australian and International artists who have ‘unpacked’ the semblance of self through jewellery, as a highly focused activity of visualising, materialising and articulating possibilities of self-knowing. Communicating extremely diverse liminal qualities, traits, or viewpoints of what it is to be a living social human. Once willfully applied/connected to the relationally active body of a wearer, the nuanced signifiers within these works activate a communication of self, on self. This highly specific action is at the fundamental core of, what is jewellery.

These artists push beyond the familiar constraints of conventional physical jewellery formats. And, toward outcomes more precisely aligned with the specific communicative possibilities of jewellery. Through their expanded propositions each of these artist’s works also hints at what may be missing from the dominant globalised preconception of ‘jewellery’ as merely a trend based decorative object, i.e., that conveying one’s true self through jewellery can be a means of heightening compassionate understandings of each other. Moreover, that the action of socially acknowledging the breadth and diversity of human identity can enable a more equitable and cohesive society.

Image: matt lambert in collaboration with Edward Cabral, CAKE, 2021. Photo: courtesy of the artist.