Research Background In the book Place and Adornment- A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand, authors Damian Skinner and Kevin Murray, ask “How might Australasian jewellers develop a local identity that is not prey to stereotypes? What is a sense of place without the prefabricated images of flora or tourist emblems?” While the three contemporary jewellers exhibiting in Inhabiting Space were not posed these questions, their works do provide a response. The exhibitors, Rebecca Ward (Maleny), Clare Poppi (Marburg) and Helen Wyatt (Sydney) create works that through material and aesthetic choices evoke a sense of place. These are precious works that encourage engagement and reflection.

Research Contribution The idea to curating Inhabiting Space developed from thinking about how humans are impacting on the world and on a smaller scale, how contemporary jewellers reflect their relationship to place through the materials they use and the subjects they address. The exhibition looks at how contemporary jewellers are thinking about place and how this is reflected in what they make. Their works convey a narrative of nature and how it intersects with the built environment and humans. The exhibition asks what we hold as precious, and considers the relationships between these.

Research Significance While the works of Ward, Poppi and Wyatt have an origin in set locations, their language, materiality and form lends them to forming associations with other places. As transportable art forms they have the very real chance and capacity to do so. The works in Inhabiting Space each capture an element of contemporary Australia without drawing on “images of flora or tourist emblems”.