Warwick Freeman, Hook Hand Heart Star. An Exhibition Review

Thirty years after reading Julie Ewington’s extraordinary essay ‘Owner’s Manual’, on the jewellery of Warwick Freeman (Nelson, New Zealand, 1953), I had the opportunity to be guided by the artist himself through his retrospective exhibition, Hook Hand Heart Star, at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich on 14 March, the day before its opening.

The travelling exhibition [1], presented as part of the official Schmuck programme, was curated by Petra Hölscher, Senior Curator at Die Neue Sammlung — The Design Museum, Kim Paton, Director of Objectspace in Auckland, Bronwyn Lloyd, writer and independent curator, and the artist himself. Installed on the top floor of the Pinakothek der Moderne, the exhibition traced the development of Freeman’s work over the past five decades. The circular architecture of the exhibition space prompted the artist to revisit his drawing Squaring Up the Circle, from 1988, which reflects the Circle workshop he attended in 1982 under the guidance of Hermann Jünger (Germany, 1928–2005) — a pivotal figure in contemporary jewellery, who at the time was Professor and Head of the Jewellery Department at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich. As stated in ‘Squaring Up the Circle — Warwick Freeman’s Exhibition Architecture’, the text accompanying the exhibition brochure:
Warwick Freeman, collage, 1988. Published in Bone Stone Shell: New Jewellery New Zealand, edited by Geri Thomas for the exhibition of the same title at the Crafts Council Gallery, Wellington.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


In 2025, over 35 years later, it is this drawing, Squaring Up the Circle, that Freeman uses as an idea for the design of this exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne. The outer round of the building shell encloses the square of the show cases, in which the inner round of the rotunda is inscribed. The four high, color-framed wall display cases represent the four concepts underpinning modern New Zealand jewellery: bone, stone, shell, and body.
(Freeman, Hölscher, Paton, 2025, p. 15)



Warwick Freeman, Hook Hand Heart Star, 2025. Exhibition view, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Courtesy: Objectspace and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. Photograph: Kai Mewe.
© Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum.


Freeman’s participation in Circle, organised by the Goethe-Institut and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council in Wellington, proved pivotal to his career, marking a decisive turning point and his conscious entry into the field of contemporary jewellery, ten years after he had begun working in the discipline.

In the essay ‘It Will Become the Life of an Artist’, published in the exhibition catalogue (arnoldsche Art Publishers), Petra Hölscher examines the structure, outcomes and lasting impact of the workshop on Freeman’s artistic development. Hölscher explains that her essay attempts to address the question of why, even today, New Zealand colleagues never tire of referring to the workshop given by Hermann Jünger back in 1982 (Hölscher, 2025, p. 12). She also reveals that, in keeping with his usual practice, Jünger preserved an extensive archive of fragments and materials from the two months he spent in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, documenting aspects of his creative process and teaching. According to Hölscher, this discovery helps us to understand why this period proved so decisive in Warwick Freeman’s development as an artist (jeweller) [2]. (Hölscher, 2025, pp. 12–13).

The works were installed throughout the circular gallery, both in freestanding display cases and in wall-mounted vitrines. Among the horizontally arranged works, particular emphasis was given to the linear groupings that the artist refers to as Sentences. At the same time, the vertically displayed pieces drew attention to individual works, most of them suspended. Positioned against the walls were four large-scale display cases, resembling framed pictures in wood and glass, which the artist calls Wall Work(s).

Wall-mounted installations feature in Warwick Freeman’s practice. The four examples here range from a colour-theme arrangement of jewellery in red and black, a group of four oversized pendants, and an abstract assembly of the shell offcuts from another body of work. The gridded tiles of Dust chart the residue of making and the by-products of materials that accumulate in the studio — they are painted with the coloured dust of almost every material Freeman has worked with over the course of his career. (Freeman, Holscher, Paton, 2025, p. 58).


Warwick Freeman, Hook Hand Heart Star, 2025. Exhibition view. WALL WORK: A Different Red / A Different Black (detail), 1999–2013. Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Photograph: Cristina Filipe.


WALL WORK: Red Shell, 2014. Pendants. Mother-of-pearl shell and paint. 100 × 120 cm.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.


Also displayed on the gallery wall was a list of words — presented in large format and arranged vertically, like a poem — which evokes both the making process, the forms of the jewellery and the exhibition’s underlying structure.


Warwick Freeman, Hook Hand Heart Star, 2025. Exhibition view, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Courtesy: Objectspace and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. Photograph: Kai Mewe.
© Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum.


Distinguished by their materials and by their pure, organic and readily recognisable forms, the works were shaped through a dialogue with the intrinsic qualities of the materials themselves and the artist’s intuitive manual intervention. Most take the form of emblems. In the essay ‘Owner’s Manual’, Julie Ewington describes these emblems or symbols as minor miracles of compression.


FACE: White Ghost, Green Ghost, Orange Ghost, 2003. Brooches. Corian and steel. Various dimensions.
Courtesy: Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum.
Photograph: Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum (Alexander Laurenzo).


EMBLEM: Insignia, 1997. Brooches. Sandstone, quartz, jasper, nephrite, mother-of-pearl shell, turtle shell, bone and silver. Various dimensions.
Collection: Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.


They speak with forceful economy about shared ideas and commitments, even (especially) those which have not yet found their voice (Ewington, 1995). She also reflects on those who wear these symbols, more specifically on the meaning that Freeman’s jewellery holds for its owners. Both are revealed through her text and Patrick Reynolds’s photographs. Yet, contrary to what one might expect, the jewellery appears with remarkable restraint and discretion, much like the artist himself during the guided visit. Its wearers are often seen from afar, set within the landscape or in other everyday contexts, while the jewellery itself appears as a subtle sign upon the body — a marker of identity. Experiencing Freeman’s exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne was like returning, virtually, to ‘Owner’s Manual’, this time guided by the artist’s own voice, which had previously resonated through Ewington’s writing. In introducing Black Rose, Ewington writes:

All flowers must die. After a brief season of splendour, the petals darken and wither and drop in fulfilment of the great preordained cycle. In the midst of life, we are in death. […] Black Rose was made in 1990, the sesquicentenary year of the British Treaty of Waitangi with the Māori people of New Zealand. An emblem of mourning, but also a badge for a new life (Ewington, 1995).

Freeman’s grandfather himself wore emblems that his grandmother bequeathed to him, and in 1985 the artist assembled this collection within a small wooden and glass cabinet lined with red felt, presenting these objects as relics under the title My Grandfather’s Jewellery. This work was included in the exhibition Share of Sky: Emblems 1985–90 at the Dowse Art Museum, where Freeman wrote in the accompanying exhibition notes:

I’m sure he wouldn’t have considered these pieces jewellery, but for me they belong to a very strong jewellery tradition — that of creating emblems; emblems that denote membership to a particular group, ranking within that group & also the honouring of its individuals. (Freeman apud Paton, 2025, p. 31).


PĀKEHĀ: Black Rose, 1990. Brooch. Oxidised silver. 5 × 4.7 cm.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


My Grandfather’s Jewellery, 1985.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


The title of the exhibition, Hook Hand Heart Star, refers to four recurring symbols in Freeman’s jewellery, whose combined image appears both in the exhibition catalogue and on the gallery walls. This is not the place to speculate on the reasons that led the artist to adopt these motifs, yet, like Black Rose, each of them carries a specific meaning. As Freeman himself remarked during the guided visit – Some ideas are so obvious that they don’t need any explanation. As Kim Paton observes in his essay, Freeman often leaves it to the viewer to discover their own meaning (Paton, 2025, p. 44). Freeman’s work explores the construction of identity by intertwining personal and historical narratives. Drawing on everyday materials, the legacy of New Zealand’s colonisation and the country’s geology as sources of inspiration, Hook Hand Heart Star brings together installations, striking groupings and the emblematic series known as Sentences, revealing an artistic practice that continues to evolve. (Medieninformation, 2025).


Warwick Freeman, Hook Hand Heart Star Book. Published by arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2025.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


In 1998, the New Zealand historian David Skinner, the first scholar to write about Freeman’s work, drew particular attention to the artist’s origins, his cultural background and the significance of local materials (Skinner, 2004). The exhibition itself confirms this perspective, as stated in its introductory text:
 
Across five decades, the New Zealand jeweller has built a lexicon of signs: from the cultural symbolism of the hook and the star to the heart redrawn in the volcanic scoria of Rangitoto Island. When worn, his jewelry communicates something of who we are and how we have lived. Throughout his career, Freeman has never tired of exploring what it means to make jewelry in Aotearoa, New Zealand. (About the Exhibition, 2025).


Arrow Hook, 2008. Pendant. Gold.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


Further insight into the interpretation of Freeman’s work can be found in Karl Chitham’s essay ‘When Is a Hook a Hei Matau?’, included in the exhibition catalogue. Reflecting on Pink Monkey Bird (2020, p. 102), Chitham writes:


Pink Monkey Bird, 2020. Brooch. Otago rhodonite. 3.5 × 6.3 × 0.5 cm.
Collection: Rae-ann Sinclair, Lake Hāwea and Sydney.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.


This brooch is an example of the human brain’s fascinating ability to try to make meaning out of what is, in effect, a nonsensical collection of shapes. To some degree, this piece is closely aligned with the problems identified by Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his musings on the now-famous rabbit-duck illusion. Wittgenstein was interested in the correlation between seeing and interpreting, and the way in which we individually attribute meaning to an object or image. He called this the ‘aspect perception’ and suggested that while we may attribute the same perception of a thing, we each also bring a different ‘aspect’ to our reading of it. Regardless of Freeman’s influence or intention for the work, it is the viewer’s personal prejudice and related life experiences that dictate whether they see a manaia made from Otago rhodonite (incidentally, the region associated with many early Māori rock drawings featuring various bird-like forms), or a pink monkey bird, or something else entirely. (Chitham, 2025, pp. 103-104).


As already noted, Hook Hand Heart Star does not follow a chronological sequence. Instead, the exhibition is structured around a list of twenty-four words that serve as a guide to its exhibition design:

‘Old School’, ‘Emblem’, ‘Pākehā’, ‘Flora’, ‘Found’, ‘Museum’, ‘Bird’, ‘Face’, ‘Heart’, ‘Pillow’, ‘Star’, ‘Ring’, ‘Circle’, ‘Appropriation’, ‘Wall Work’, ‘Hand’, ‘Place’, ‘Arm’, ‘Hook’, ‘Old Brain’, ‘Beadwork’, ‘Myth’, ‘Pattern’, and ‘Sentences’.


SENTENCE: Sentence (detail), 2024. Installation. Pink Monkey Bird, Face Ache, Poppy, Hanger Hook, Pāua Brooch, Red Butterfly, Apron Hook. Various materials and dimensions.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


The groups defined by these words bring together works from different periods. According to the artist, the list could easily have included other terms, highlighting the versatility — or, indeed, the ‘intentional ambiguity’— of his work (Chitham, 2025, p. 104). Themes and forms recur across different moments in his career. Symbols are repeated throughout the ‘sentences’, functioning almost like a mantra. The artist typically develops at least three variations of each symbol over time. These motifs carry emotional, political, social and aesthetic associations, reflecting both their significance within the traditions of his culture and the ways in which Freeman has continued to engage with them throughout his artistic practice.


SENTENCE: Sentence (detail), 2024. Installation. Cross Bones, Lava Brooch, Lamp, Key (Yale), Gorse Brooch, Pearl Pillow, Fella, Starling. Various materials and dimensions.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


In his essay ‘The Novelty of Our Own Situation’, Freeman wrote:

I get my permission to make jewellery from those who have made jewellery before me. I take permission from the society I work within, the world that surrounds and influences me. And somewhere in that mix, I can even identify permission that might be something to do with my own voice — a piece became a piece when I say so. But always it is the result of accumulated voices –– some saying yes, you can, and some saying no, you can’t. Finally, you listen to your own voice, but not without having heard the others (consciously or unconsciously). (Freeman, 1999, p. 70).
 
During the guided tour and in his essay ‘The Workshop: A Memoir', included in the exhibition catalogue (Freeman, 2025, p. 83) [3], the artist emphasised the interdisciplinary nature of his practice, noting that the elements composing the Wall Work installations could be regarded as jewellery when worn on the body, or as paintings in their present arrangement. Within contemporary art, the boundaries between traditional categories are frequently transgressed, giving rise to new reflections and questions rather than conforming to the conventions derived from the etymology of the terms used to define them.

In the essay ‘The Language of Warwick Freeman’, mentioned earlier, Kim Paton observes that his breadth of interest and curiosity across creative disciplines — craft, fine art, architecture — is evident in his jewellery. Freeman gives equal weight to the craft of making, the act of wearing, and the theoretical heavy-lifting of his work, and it is particularly evident in his sentences and Wall-based installations. (Paton, 2025, p. 45).

Freeman’s retrospective broadens our understanding of his work, resisting interpretations confined to material, form or disciplinary boundaries. The artist’s acts of transformation are explored throughout the exhibition and articulated in his essay, where he writes:

The act of transformation that can take place with very simple actions. A fundamental action like drilling a hole (as in the panels in Dust) is one of the earliest technical skills we developed. That simple action, by creating a point of suspension, can make any material a piece of jewellery. That technique is probably why jewellery is so prominent in our early material culture. (Freeman, 2025, p. 84).



Dust (detail), 2011. Wall work. Pressed wood, synthetic, natural and metallic dusts, binder. 100 × 120 cm.
Photograph: Sam Hartnett.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.


The exhibition not only highlights the artist’s modus operandi and the context in which his works are made [3], but also reveals the artists whose voices resonate at his workbench — Hermann Jünger, Otto Künzli (Switzerland, 1948), Onno Boekhoudt (The Netherlands, 1949–2002), Dorothea Prühl (Germany, 1937), Kobi Bosshard (New Zealand, 1939), and Alain Preston (New Zealand, 1941) are among the voices he — and we — listen to (Freeman, 2025, p. 87). The accompanying catalogue — with its outstanding essays, photography and graphic design — is an invaluable resource for further study. Like the exhibition itself, it is exemplary.



Warwick Freeman’s Ngataringa Bay Workshop, 1978–2019.
Photographs by Sam Hartnett, 2019.
Curated by Objectspace.
Courtesy: The artist and Objectspace.



Notes:
[1] The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Warwick Freeman, Objectspace and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. Following its presentation in Munich, it will travel to Objectspace in Auckland in December 2025 and to the Dowse Art Museum in Wellington in July 2026. The exhibition is supported by H.E. Craig John Hawke, New Zealand Ambassador to Germany, and by the Blumhardt Foundation (New Zealand), Creative New Zealand, the Museumsstiftung zur Förderung der Staatlichen Bayerischen Museen – Vermächtnis Christof und Ursula Engelhorn, and The Stout Trust (New Zealand).
[2] It’s a truly lucky find that gives us a rough idea of why this workshop marked a clear turning point in Warwick Freeman’s life and his understanding as a (jewellery) artist.
[3] The workshop makes dust. Layers of it. Dust from wood, metal, stone, plastic, and many more materials. I collected the dust from each material, for no reason, until, in 2011, I made a record of the materials (over sixty) I had used to make jewellery by mixing the dust of each with a binder and painting it onto a small rectangle of wood. Then arranged them on the wall in a way that is reminiscent of a sample rack of laminates in a hardware store. But also — because of the hole they were suspended from — possibly pendants.
[4] Vd. Hartnett, S. (2025), ‘A Workshop Portrait’ in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung –– The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Estugarda, pp. 290-297.


References:
- About the Exhibition, Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Head Star in https://www.pinakothek-der-moderne.de/en/exhibitions/warwickfreemann/, accessed on 31 August 2025.
- Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart.
- Ewington, J. (1995), ‘Owner’s Manual’ in Freeman, Reynolds, Ewington, Owner’s Manual. Jewellery by Warwick Freeman, New Zealand.
- Freeman, W. (1999), ‘The Novelty of Our Own Situation’ in Given. Jewellery by Warwick Freeman, Starform, Auckland, 2004, pp. 67-75.
- Freeman, W.; Skinner, D. (2004), Given. Jewellery by Warwick Freeman, Starform, Auckland.
- Freeman, W. (2025), ‘The Workshop: A Memoir’ in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung –– The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 70-69.
- Freeman, W.; Hölscher, P.; Paton, K. (2025), ‘Squaring Up the Circle – Warwick Freeman’s exhibition architecture’ in Warwick Freeman Hook Hand Heart Star [exhibition leaflet], p. 15.
- Hartnett, S. (2025), A Workshop Portrait in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung –– The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 290-297.
- Hölscher, P. (2025), ‘It Will Become the Life of an Artist’ in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung — The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 10-25.
- Lloyd, B. (2025), ‘Freeman Days’ in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung –– The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 275-289.
- Medieninformation, Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munique, 2025.
- Paton, K. (2025), ‘The Language of Warwick Freeman’ in Chapple, G., Chitham, K., Freeman, W., Hölscher, P., Lloyd, B., Nollert, A., Paton, K. (2025), Warwick Freeman. Hook Hand Heart Star, Die Neue Sammlung — The Design Museum, Munique, Objectspace, Auckland, Aotearoa, arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 26-69.
- Skinner, D. (2004), ‘Weka’ in Given. Jewellery by Warwick Freeman, Starform, Auckland, 2004, p. 2.


Acknowledgements
Dr. Petra Hölscher and Michaela Klaube, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum,  München; Victoria McAdam and Scarlett Robinson-Kean, Objectspace, Auckland; Liesbeth den Besten and Saskia Kolff-van Es.
 

About the author

Dr. Cristina Filipe (Lisbon, 1965) lives and works in Lisbon. She holds a PhD in Heritage Studies from the School of Arts of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (2018), and she is a researcher at the Centre for Research in Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR). She has a Master’s degree in Arts and Design from the Surrey Institute of Art & Design (2001) and studied jewellery at Ar.Co — Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Royal College of Art.

She taught jewellery at Ar.Co between 1989 and 2015, directing its Jewellery Department from 2004 to 2015, and has since been a guest artist and lecturer at several international institutions. She received the Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant from the Art Jewelry Forum (2017) for the book Contemporary Jewellery in Portugal. From the Avant-Garde of the 1960s to the Early 21st Century (2019), whose English edition is distributed by Arnoldsche Art Publishers.

Since 2005, she has worked as an independent curator and researcher. She founded and chaired PIN  — Associação Portuguesa de Joalharia Contemporânea (2004–2023), created and was General Curator of the 1st Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial — Cold Sweat (2021), is the author of numerous articles and essays, editorial and scientific coordinator of the book Cold Sweat (2022), and creator and scientific coordinator of INCM’s book Collection J (2023).

In 2026, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to undertake a Visiting Scholar fellowship in curatorial studies at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York in 2027.