Tag Archives: Melbourne

Luck by Design talk on 15 March

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Luck by design: Artists speak about their work in the Joyaviva exhibition

RMIT Gallery Thursday 15 March 12-1pm

A chance to listen to the curator and artists talk about the challenge of designing charms for a modern world.

For the exhibition Joyaviva, artists developed new charms to be worn for specific purposes. The exhibition features these charms alongside responses from their wearers.

Hear the artists reflect on how they designed the charms and the experience of sending them out into the world. Speakers will include Melissa Cameron, Jill Hermans, Jin ah Jo, Blanche Tilden and Kevin Murray.

Some recent related stories (here more at the stack):

Discover gold in Melbourne

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Joyaviva is situated in an art gallery, strict rules apply to touching the art works. But there are some exceptions.

Sarah Read’s This Too Shall Pass is a series of tags attached to cards with images of the Christchurch earthquake. They have been lovingly stitched by members of the New Zealand jewellery community in solidarity with The National, a jewellery gallery which lost its premises in the quake. For $10, you can take one of these cards away. It makes a touching gift for someone experiencing another kind of shock, and in the process you can discover gold underneath.

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If you are interested in obtaining other charms, refer to the website. Though if you look closely through the materials in the gallery, you might be able to obtain a gold charm for yourself.

Meanwhile, feel free to do some flower arranging.

Joyaviva is on at RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston Street Melbourne, until 24 March 2012 (hours Mon-Fri 11-5, Thur until 7, Sat 12-5)

‘Life is very strange’: Joyaviva opens

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Joyaviva had its first opening at RMIT Gallery on Thursday night. The gallery with packed with people pouring over the intriguing objects, surrounded by touching stories of their use.

Melbourne jeweller Susan Cohn gave the opening remarks. She talked about the contradiction of using objects ‘to help me get through the moment’, while not believing in the power of outside forces. For her, jewellery makes connections – to people, causes, worlds. She claimed that ‘Jewellery is a universal language of belonging’.

Cohn praised the way artists in Joyaviva responded to the moment in time and it’s ongoing story. ‘They considered the world around them, with its daily challenges and catastrophes.’ They did this by drawing on materials of the moment. Cohn’s final words were, ‘Life is very strange’.

Thought the opening clashed with the international Jemposium at Wellington, quite a few of the artists were present, including Claudia Bettencourt and Nano Pulgar from Chile, Alice Whish from Sydney, and Jin ah Jo, Caz Guiney, Gina Ropiha and Blanche Tilden from Melbourne.

The show continues at RMIT until 24 March. It will re-open in Sydney at UTS Gallery on 1 August, then go to Auckland, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico.