Handshake: The Conventional Reformed

Artist list

Vivien Atkinson, Becky Bliss, Kristin D'Agostino, Mandy Flood, Nik Hanton, Lisa Higgins, Kelly McDonald, Sandra Schmid, Kylie Sinkovich, Caroline Thomas, Sarah Walter-Holt

For Sydney Craft Week 2020, eleven New Zealand artists from the Handshake Project, an initiative that brings together established and early career artists specializing in wearable art, exhibit artwork that connects to the context of jewellery and its traditions. Makers of Traditional Change – the Conventional Reformed marks the Handshake Project's third exhibition at Stanley Street Gallery.

The premise for the exhibition, is to respond to widely known jewellery traditions. Rendering new opportunities for contemporary wearable art, the artists have been asked to consider the physical, functional and cultural connotations related to traditional jewellery. By reinterpreting these modes, through unconventional materials and concepts, the artists ask the viewer or the wearer, to re-evaluate their preconceived ideas of why objects are worn. The Handshake artists uncover the thinking behind their reflective discoveries during their making process. This has been unwrapped in multiple directions, rendering new opportunities for them.

How is Contemporary jewellery today:
Last century saw a revolution in how jewellery was perceived. With this break from tradition, artists shifted all known perimeters and experimented how far its discourse can be pushed. The jewellery craft became a pursuit for ideas and with that the debate of its applied position in craft, art, or design. This century became a time for consolidation through global restrain and social control resulting in a more rudimentary focus on material- and process culture. The revolution from last century unfolded into a slower-paced evolution in how jewellery connects to the body.

About the Handshake Project:
Handshake is a space where established artists hand over some of their quality knowledge to those asking for a ‘hand’, a two-way project that encourages symbiosis and give & take. Handshake offers two stages: the first stage is with a mentor followed up with a program with specialized coaches. In the second stage, the mentor becomes their colleague and in some cases their collaborator. This allows the artist to develop themselves into independent makers. The series of exhibitions for each project are purpose made to inspire the natural progression of each maker’s work, therefore no Handshake exhibition is the same.

This exhibition is a response to the theme Change Makers of the fourth annual of the Sydney Craft Week Festival which is about celebrating creativity and the handmade in all its forms. This festival creates the opportunity for the whole community to engage with craft, experience the benefits of making, and purchase local handmade work.

Opening Hours:
Thursday and Friday, 11 am - 6 pm.
Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm.