Words: Saskia Edwards
Images: Jonathan Rae
Marshall Mcluhan famously coined the phrase,
“the medium is the message”. Meaning, that in fact the medium to communicate a
message can be more impactful than the content of a message itself.
Artisan’s Greensmith exhibition is a
collaboration between Queensland and Californian jewellers. The pieces all have
the underlying unifying themes of sustainability, environmental consciousness
and preservation.
Of course, the medium to express those concepts
is through jewellery – from intricate silver adornments to large plastic sculptural
neckpieces.
And in this case it seems that the medium is as
important as the message. As if this didacticism needs to be seen in this form
– that the destructive practices of humanity can be better understood through
something beautiful and yet sustainable.
Kathleen Hunt’s serpentine neckpiece is
featured in the exhibition. It effortlessly drapes across the mannequin but
also sits with rigid structure.
For Kathleen, the jewellery itself is crucial
in expressing an idea.
“Now we tend to virtually adorn ourselves with
trophies – essentially, don’t we?
“‘Look what I’ve got, and my watch, and my
gorgeous earrings and my this and my that.’ So I’m actually turning that around
and rather than saying, ‘this is a trophy’, saying, ‘now well this is what
we’ve done and we have to wear the consequences of it’.”
The sculptural piece is created primarily
through deconstructed coat hangers.
“My sister works in retail and she kept bringing
home these beautiful Birchwood coat hangers.
“And the thing about these hangers is because
they had a name on them, they didn’t even hit the racks in the shops, they were
just used for transportation and then they were discarded.”
In fact, each year around eight billion coat
hangers are produced – enough to fill the Empire State Building more than four
times. Kathleen’s practice draws attention to this gross waste and
overproduction. Yet her piece is beautiful, which is somewhat contradictory as
the iridescent gleam of the hangers is a result of the heavy metal used to
create them – chrome. It’s as if artificial beauty is inherently noxious.
Kathleen is intent on keeping her materials as
raw as possible. In fact, the naturalness of the manufactured products is
enhanced by the Fibonacci pattern seen throughout nature, which is used in her
neckpiece.
“I won’t force the material to do anything that
isn’t in its nature and I think if we look throughout our landscape and took
the same approach, things would be different.
“If we stopped forcing our environment to be
something that it’s not.”
Kathleen’s sculpture, along with all the other
artists at Greensmith highlights the environmental degradation caused by humanity’s
insatiable consumption. And the message is in the medium – the works prove that
not only can jewellery be sustainable, but it proves the ugliness of mass
consumption.
As Kathleen says: “I think that’s the job of
the artist – to notice change and to bring it to attention.”
