It’s taken me a while, but I’m finally back around to explaining the Bodywork exhibition, or to give it its proper title, Bodywork: Australian Jewellery 1972-2012. In early October I mentioned that Dr Robert Bell, AM: Senior Curator Decorative Arts and Design, National Gallery of Australia spoke at the Seams Seems symposium on:
the Bodywork exhibition. This exhibition of Australian jewellery owned by the NGA will be travelling to ten regional galleries from 2013 to 2015. The exhibition began at the Moree Plains Gallery on the 7th of September, 2013
From the description on the National Gallery of Australia website:
This exhibition includes the work of 42 Australian jewellers exploring jewellery from a number of viewpoints within six broad themes: Romanticism, Interpreting the Vernacular, Encapsulating Nature, Technics, Social Message and Sculpture for the Body. All of the works are from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
The exhibiting artists are too numerous to list (okay, I grew some spine, here we go…) :
Romantacism
Robert Baines
Julie Blyfield
Bethamy Linton
Sally Marsland
Phill Mason
Elizabeth Olah
Barbara Rees
Interpreting the Vernacular
Robyn Backen
Melissa Cameron
Elèna Gee
Ragnar Hansen
Helge Larsen + Darani Lewers
Christel van der Laan
Wolf Wennrich
Encapsulating Nature
Helen Britton
Marian Hosking
Rosalie Loo
Carlier Makigawa
Ray Norman
Gillian Rainer
Margaret West
Social Message
Pierre Cavalan
Susan Cohn
Felicity Peters
Lyn Tune
Technics
Jan Arundell + Ted Arundell
Frank Bauer
Simon Cottrell
Mark Edgoose
Rex Keogh
Joannes Kuhnen
Andrew Last
Blanche Tilden
David Walker
Sculpture for the Body
Helen Aitken-Kuhnen
Robert Foster
Leslie Matthews
Mascha Moje
Brenda Ridgewell
Dore Stockhausen
The full list of venues and dates are available on the NGA Bodywork site, but it went on show yesterday at the Glasshouse Gallery in Port Macquarie, NSW and will be there until the 2nd of February 2014, after which it opens at Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery in South Australia from February to May of 2014.
Dr Bell specifically mentioned that the exhibition was not travelling to capital cities – except for an outing in Canberra towards the end of the tour (I covered this as well in that post) so to catch it you’re going to have to get out into the regional centres. Or go through Canberra at the end of the ski season in 2015!