JOC (Jewellery out of Context)

JOC (Jewellery out of Context)’ aims to deconstruct jewellery’s most elementary principle -”Made to Wear’. 

The Jewellery Out of Context (JOC) idea is born from the desire to communicate the unique issues related to jewellery and adornment, in formats with and different from itself, in order to reveal and unravel the many facets related to the formation and organisation of the jewellery discourse. This exhibition aims to provoke the jewellery community by deconstructing and reassembling its most elementary principle-'made to wear'. JOC is put together as a playful token for its own centralised existence: jewellery' has a good look to itself or jewellery 'dresses up' for its own party, where artists look beyond, but not away from the phenomena of object ornamentation and its psychology.


'JOC (Jewellery Out of Context)' is a renewed version of the exhibition presented at the Sydney 2006 Jewellers' and Metalsmiths' Group of Australia (JMGA) conference.


The 24 works created by 28 New Zealand artists (all are immigrants, emigrants, migrants, or natives to New Zealand) has explored the relationships and transformations of jewellery in its wider content and context in a variety of media, including photography, sculpture-, fibre- , taxidermies- and video art.


This exhibition has no strict format, other then to celebrate jewellery and its related world. 'What is precious and what is non-precious seen through the eyes of artists will transform relationships and positions of normality. It is made special by the reflection of who we are and what we like to be'.


Combining the 'art' and 'design' practices with its craft linkage, presented with and by each other, with no particular hierarchical order, will open up debate about both practices and provide opportunities for new ideas. The aim was to include and provide possibilities and opportunities for experimentation and creative partnership among the JOC artists.
The functionality of the object and its occupied (small) space expand on the notion of psychology of proportion and onto the psychology of the owner and the onlooker. Bringing-in big scale workers (sculptors, mix media, textile, film artists and set designers etc) inside the museum walls will further deconstruct the realm of comfort.


Peter Deckers
Co-ordinator, co-curator