USE exhibition showcases unique jewellery and wares

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The USE exhibition will feature works like this intricate piece by Clare Poppi.
The USE exhibition will feature works like this intricate piece by Clare Poppi.

An exhibition featuring exquisitely crafted contemporary jewellery and small objects will be showcased at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery soon.

The work, by seventeen artists from the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia, has been combined for the USE exhibition and celebrates jewellery and small objects from the point of view of the maker, their tools and the making process.

“While contemporary jewellery and small objects practices are highly diverse in their forms and motivations, tools are the common denominator that defines this field of creative practice,” USE Curator Lisa Bryan-Brown said.

“From traditional tools like hammers, saws and pliers, to modern innovations like 3D printers and laser-cutting machines, tools are essential in the creation of jewellery and small objects works.

“That is why they provide such a rich and reflexive theme for a group exhibition of works by jewellery and small objects artists”.

USE exhibition displays intricate works

USE displays more than 70 works by selected JMGQ artists responding to this theme, pushing the conceptual and material boundaries of their practice to create sophisticated, quirky, intricate, and uniquely innovative works from an array of traditional and non-traditional materials.

They contain the many associations of jewellery – intimacy, pleasure, wearability and adornment – but some are less functional and can be viewed as installation or small sculptural objects in their own right.

Artists showcased in this exhibition are Helen Bird, Jac Dyson, Lois Hayes, Catherine Hunter, Alicia Lane, Catherine Large, Samuel Lintern, Andy Lowrie, Nellie Peoples, Clare Poppi, Kierra-Jay Power, Paola Raggo, Elizabeth Shaw, Katie Stormonth, Rebecca Ward, Helen Wyatt, Xiaohui Yang.

USE will tour to twelve Australian galleries from 2019 to 2021, and is at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery until 17 November 2019.

Event details

USE will be officially opened on Friday, 4 October 2019 at 5.30pm at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery by Lisa Bryan Brown, Curator of USE

Public programs
Curator’s Talk: Friday, 4 October 2019 at 4.30pm

Jewellery Workshop
‘Etched Silver Pendant’ with Clare Poppi: Saturday, 12 October 10am – 1pm. School of Arts, Bourbong Street. Cost: $45 pp.