RMIT GALLERY EDUCATION KIT MasterMakers 6 September – 9 November 2019 RMIT Gallery Since the 1980s, leading Australian and international Gold and Silversmithing artists have delivered and participated in masterclasses in the RMIT School of Art which has had a profound impact on the training of the craft in Australia. This major exhibition explores the masterclass legacy, showcasing both recent works of the visiting ‘master makers’ and work produced at the master classes, as well as recording the cultural, artistic and technical shift in contemporary jewellery and object. Featuring beautiful handmade work, intricate detailing and an incredible array of materials and unsual combinations, MasterMakers is a celebration of skill and devotion. Curator: Mark Edgoose Featuring artists: Ruby Aitchison, Helen Aitken-Kuhnen, Robert Baines, Nicholas Bastin, Peter Bauhuis, Dianne Beevers, Doris Betz, Renee Bevan, David Bielander, Julie Blyfield, Zoe Brand, Helen Britton, Sue Buchanan, Melissa Cameron, Bifei Cao, Pamela Chan, Yu Fang Chi, David Clarke, Anna Clynes, Katie Collins, Conversation Piece (Beatrice Brovia & Nicholas Cheng), Anna Davern, Helen Dilkes, Bin Dixon-Ward, Joungmee Do, Mark Edgoose, Sian Edwards, Ian Ferguson, Karl Fritsch, Emi Fukuda, Eli Giannini, Kiko Gianocca, Allona Goren, Rowena Gough, Wayne Guest, Caz Guiney, Marcos Guzman, Mary Hackett, Kirsten Haydon, Peter Hoogeboom, Marian Hosking, Katherine Hubble, Linda Hughes, David Huycke, Naoko Inuzuka, Kazuhiro Itoh, Nicole Jacquard, Tassia Joannides, Cara Johnson, Hermann Jünger, Jiro Kamata, Jung-Hoo Kim, Inari Kiuru, Wendy Korol, Daniel Kruger, Otto Künzli, Andrew Last, Benjamin Lignel, Sue Lorraine, Carlier Makigawa, Stefano Marchetti, Marion Marshall, Chris Massey, Claire McArdle, Kelly McDonald, Lindy McSwan Sam Mertens, Karl Millard, Yutaka Minegishi, Marc Monzó, Shelley Norton, Michaela Pegum, Jana Roman, Lucy Sarneel, Elise Sheehan, Debbie Sheezel, Bettina Speckner, Michelle Stewart, Leah Teschendorff, Elizabeth Turrell, Renée Ugazio, Manon van Kouswijk, Michael Wong and Aurelia Yeomans. 1 MasterMakers Curator’s Statement Mark Edgoose Curator Mark Edgoose during the MasterMakers installation The evolution of the RMIT Gold and Silversmithing masterclass has been one of shared experiences; a hands-on, immersive encounter working with experts to facilitate knowledge through collaborative investigations. The master classes are where makers learn new ideas and strategies of working from fellow makers. For many, this has been a transformative experience revealing new ways of thinking and enabling new practices to materialise. Through the evolution of divergent masterclasses strong networks have been formed. In addition to encountering new skills, methodologies of working and testing new technologies, practitioners have spent many hours shaping ideas with others. Strong international friendships with contemporary jewellery makers, galleries and engagement with collectors have been forged. Closer to home RMIT has been the anchor research institution which has clustered with other organisations, notably Gallery Funaki and the NGV. With that comes exhibitions, collectors, conferences and seminars. The fact the masterclasses make the work real and tangible firms up all these activities and supports Melbourne as a leading centre for contemporary jewellery and object making. In the front gallery we obverse some of the context and thinking that takes place in the masterclass. The evolution of process is an essential ingredient to the outcome of the work and situates the masterclass as an enabler for the makers to define their practice and the world around them. MasterMakers celebrates a commitment to and passion for craft and the consequences of technique resonates from the work of these masterful makers. 2 MasterMakers Public Programs @ RMIT Gallery Friday 6 September 12.30 – 1.30 pm Curator’s Floor talk With Mark Edgoose Tuesday 10 September 12.30-1.30 pm Mentoring: Process & Outcomes Yu Fang Chi (curator) & Kate Rhodes (RMIT Design Hub) Thursday 19 September 5.30-6.30 pm Making is Knowing Convenor Prof Kit Wise, Dean, RMIT School of Art With artists Eli Giannini, Tassia Joannides & Prof Michael Trudgeon RMIT, Design Director Crowd Productions Friday 4 October 12.30-1.30 pm Artist reflection With Bin Dixon-Ward, Nicholas Bastin & Marian Hosking 3 Tuesday 8 October 11- 12 noon Skills, designs & creativity With Mark Edgoose Thursday 31 October 5.30-6.30 pm Coveted relationships: the collector & the jeweller Convenor: Katie Scott (Director Gallery Funaki) Event @ Site 8 Gallery, RMIT School of Art Bld 2 Lv 2, Bowen Street (off Latrobe St) Tuesday 8 October 4.00 – 5.00 pm ‘Formosa on My Mind’ Master Class Floor Talk Prof I-Ying Chiang (Beatrice) National Tsing Hua University & Prof Robert Baines, Emeritus Professor, RMIT University Caption: Bin Dixon-Ward 2012, Double Tumble Ring and Tumble Ring, Nylon, Acrylic Paint, Photo Jeremy Dillon 4 MEDIA RELEASE MasterMakers celebrates skills and originality in contemporary jewellery Lucy Sarneel (Netherlands) Starry Sky Limousine Drive, 2013 Zinc, acrylic paint, varnish, lapis lazuli, ​ ​ wood and nylon thread. A bold, unexpected and daring exhibition of contemporary jewellery that charts four decades of Gold and Silversmithing masterclasses run by RMIT’s School of Art will dazzle at RMIT Gallery from 6 September. The 84 artists in MasterMakers have either taught a masterclass or have attended ​ one of the workshops. The 200 extraordinary works on display reveal the influence of three generations of boundary pushing which test our understanding of contemporary gold and silversmithing in new and unexpected ways. From taxidermy to textiles, 3-D printing to recycled materials, as well as unusual combinations of precious metals, MasterMakers celebrates the intricacies of the ​ handmade, the importance of ideas and the mastery of skills and techniques. Starting in an era before digital communication, social media and the ubiquitous Instagram feed, the persistent regularity of RMIT’s masterclass workshop series since the 1980s and the international standing of the Gold and Silversmithing Studio at RMIT has brought jewellers, students and practitioners in contact with leading makers from around the world. Lead by practitioners from a remarkably diverse range of backgrounds, genders and identities, the intense, in-depth, and often immersive experience of working with experts has been transformative for generations of students. The workshops offered participants a steady succession of makers from the UK, USA, Japan, the Netherlands and Germany, such as influential jeweller Lucy Sarneel from The Netherlands whose distinctive use of fabricated zinc is inspired by her local architecture. 5 According to curator and lecturer Mark Edgoose the workshops had a profound impact on the training of the craft in Australia, fostering international contact and communication, and leading to the sharing of skills, methods and philosophies of making. He recalls Melbourne jeweller Bin Dixon-Ward first learning 3-D printing in a workshop run by American artist Nicole Jacquard in 2010. “The masterclasses enabled new ways of working and thinking about the possibilities of contemporary jewellery, especially at a time when ideas were primarily disseminated via books and magazines and international travel wasn’t commonplace,” Edgoose said. “They also helped build a community of makers as the workshops were not part of the teaching program and were open to both practicing jewellers and students, so the influence and impact was widespread.” MasterMakers showcases both recent work of the ‘master’ makers who taught the workshops over the decades, as well as work they produced at the masterclasses, alongside recent work by those who participated in the workshops. A complementary exhibition Insistent. Gestures curated by Taiwan-born jewellery ​ artist Yu Fang Chi, an RMIT PhD graduate, will also be exhibited at RMIT Gallery alongside MasterMakers. The result of an early career curator mentorship program ​ ​ offered by the Melbourne Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennial Radiant ​ Pavilion, the exhibition brings together the exquisitely detailed work of five artists ​ who live, work or were born in Asia. What: MasterMakers and Insistent. Gestures ​ ​ ​ When: 6 September – 9 November 2019 ​ Where: RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne ​ Opening Night: Thursday 5 September 6-8 pm ​ Opening Speaker: Virginia Trioli, journalist, author, radio and television presenter ​ Website: https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/all-events/exhibitions/2019/september/master makers 6 From trash to treasure: inside the Master Class Nicholas Bastin in the studio, and (left) Nicholas Bastin, Pink Egg (detail), 2013. 18ct gold, polyurethane resin, BioResin, wood, collected plastic object, nylon thread. 515 x 90 x 55mm. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Jeremy Dillon What makes a masterclass so potentially life changing for creative practitioners is the exposure to new skills, ideas, ways of thinking and an opening up of cultural aesthetics. That was certainly the case for RMIT lecturer Dr Nicholas Bastin, whose artwork reveals the legacy of a week-long RMIT workshop in the mid-1990s with acclaimed Japanese jeweller Kazuhiro Itoh. Bastin is an artist who makes jewellery objects and works on paper, based on the fusion of popular culture mythology with historical artefact. He has a BA, Fine Art (Honours) MA, Fine Art and Phd from RMIT University. Itoh (who died in 1997) was a lecturer at the