MAKER, ARTS PROFESSIONAL AND CURATOR WITH 21 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
AS A CONTEMPORARY JEWELLER, CRAFTSPERSON & ARTIST.
MAKER, ARTS PROFESSIONAL AND CURATOR WITH 21 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
AS A CONTEMPORARY JEWELLER, CRAFTSPERSON & ARTIST.
MAKER, ARTS PROFESSIONAL AND CURATOR WITH 21 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
AS A CONTEMPORARY JEWELLER, CRAFTSPERSON & ARTIST.
KEEPSAKE
—
Kirrily Hammond & Sim Luttin
9 August to 22 October 2017
—
Keepsake was an exhibition of work by Kirrily Hammond and Sim Luttin that documented moments in time—traces captured between night and day, work and home, travelling from one place to another. As a quiet repose from our hectic lives, this exhibition explored the personal, quiet moments in our urban environments, striving to capture small moments of sublime in the everyday.
In a unique combination of painting and jewellery practices, ‘Keepsake’ featured intimate oil paintings on copper by Kirrily Hammond and contemporary jewellery and photography by Sim Luttin.
The exhibition was supported by Bundoora Homestead, Gallerysmith and Pieces of Eight Gallery and was presented as part of the contemporary jewellery biennial Radiant Pavilion.
'Keepsake’ exhibition brochure by Liz Cox monoprint.com, with an essay by Dr Jessica Neath.
Bundoora Homestead
7 Prospect Hill Drive
Bundoora VIC 3083 (view map)
Wednesday-Friday 11 am-4 pm;
Saturday-Sunday 12-5 pm
(03) 9496 1060
www.bundoorahomestead.com
—
CATALOGUE
Essay by Dr Jessica Neath
EXHIBITION
Two-person show by Kirrily Hammond & Sim Luttin
DATE: 25 August - 22 October 2017
WHERE: Bundoora Homestead, 7 Prospect Hill Drive, Bundoora
ENTRY: Free
OPENING
DATE: 25 August 2017, 2-4pm
WHERE: Bundoora Homestead, 7 Prospect Hill Drive, Bundoora
ENTRY: Free
ARTIST TALK
DATE: 25 August 2017, 3-4pm
WHERE: Bundoora Homestead, 7 Prospect Hill Drive, Bundoora
ENTRY: Fre
ESSAY
To read – to see, to understand – is to interpret one’s time. To write. There is no reading that is not technological. — BERNARD STIEGLER, 2009.
Stiegler’s concept of reading is based on the reciprocity between reader and author formed through the shared technical competency of writing. Reading comes from knowledge of how to write, and the ability to show what was understood by writing in turn. The philosopher argues that humans have always existed with and through technologies but when the speed of technological development confounds social organisation a state of disorientation ensues. In the current intensification of digital and informatic technologies, the “participative aesthetic” between creator and audience is severed because “encoding and decoding operations are delegated in(to) machines.” We receive the outputs of these technologies without memory of how they were created.
Do the artists included in this exhibition occlude this “participative aesthetic” by using digital technology to “encode” their content? The atmospheric qualities of Kirrily Hammond’s paintings, and the dimensions of Sim Luttin’s photographs, indicate the use of a camera phone. Both artists have sought to capture those illustrious moments of the suburban everyday by routinely taking quick snapshots. The phone becomes a mnemonic device, in the artists’ words, holding those “quiet moments… before busy takes over.” Yet both artists produce discrete, non-digital, objects from this process that defy the continuous information flows of digital life. Hammond paints detailed fragments of these images in oil pigment on small copper plates. In Luttin’s works the photographic images are both mounted in small picture frames and encased in oxidised sterling silver. The artists call these objects keepsakes. Luttin’s jewellery pieces are to be treasured, keeping the image close to the body. However, these objects are not made in memory of a special person but of a passing moment: a stopgap against the ravenous frenzy of time devouring space and itself.
In these painted and photographic images, many will recognise the back laneways of Northcote, the conglomerate of electricity poles and overgrown creek tracks distinctive of Brunswick, and the miner’s cottages of Carlton. Both artists also picture places further afield, suburbs I do not know the names of, in Germany, Belgium, and the United States. These are the moments glimpsed at twilight on the way home from work, peering out the window of a moving car or train, or walking to the local park. For all the stasis of these images, the rectangular buildings and vertical power poles, there is a sense of mobility, of passing through. Hammond’s most abstract image renders the flat land seen from the car window at the edge of Melbourne in horizontal bands of blue, pink, and Payne’s grey. The sweeping brushstrokes are translucent allowing the copper to shine through, leaving a reflective surface.
The works of both artists bear the marks of their creation. Due to the ubiquitous use of camera phones, many viewers will read these works in Steigler’s terms, and feel reciprocity with the artists. Perhaps this understanding will be shown with an embrace of their own quiet moments and reclamation of time.
— DR JESSICA NEATH July 2017
Sim Luttin, Keepsake 2017
Sim Luttin, Keepsake 2017
Sim Luttin, Keepsake 2017
Kirrily Hammond, Keepsake 2017
Kirrily Hammond, Keepsake 2017
Kirrily Hammond, Keepsake 2017
KEEPSAKE INSTALLATION
