SETTINGS & FINDINGS EPISODE N. 3 WITH KRISTINA NEUMANN
Intro:
I had the pleasure to first meet Kristina Neumann during Radiant Pavilion in Melbourne Australia with our interactions continued at Australian National University where I was a visiting researcher. Sadly this program was recently disestablished as part of the many jewelry/metal/body object programs globally that are currently fighting for existence. Jewelry as an object is always in discourse with a body and Neumann uses it here to question a bodies: home, positionality, and sustainability. As studios disestablish, close, fracture or merge how will we build community and home for our work?
Settings and Findings:
This body of work revolves around the idea of ‘home’. In particular, I speak from the setting and context of a developed country situated in the pacific, that has a violent colonial history. This country occupies the stolen lands of the longest surviving culture in the world. The lands from which I speak are those of the Ngunnawal and Ngrambri peoples.
The investigation I bring to the table, the previous question I examine in this setting, considers the cost of living, which has risen astronomically in recent times. The prospect of owning a house is consequently more pipe dream than reality, as the price of housing is continually being pushed to new highs.
This series of work is a personal exploration of the meaning of home through the use of architectural motifs, material and surface investigations and wearability. Locally made brick that is no longer in production, a finite resource, carries the weight of preciousness. Dryer lint, a by-product of the lived experience of a home, brings a sense of familiarity and comfort. The two materials together frame the internal/external dimensions of the pieces. Recognisable features like the window sill and a protruding drain pipe place the structure from the urban landscape.
This precious setting yields the following finding: a token, a small thing that one can take with them, a synecdoche of the home, worn against the heart and close to the body. This synecdoche is an important reminder of the constantly unstable and changing conception of what constitutes a “home”, especially at this time when house-ownership seems so unattainable for so many.
Online Presence:
Instagram: @Kristina_Neumann_
Website: www.kristinaneumann.com.au
I had the pleasure to first meet Kristina Neumann during Radiant Pavilion in Melbourne Australia with our interactions continued at Australian National University where I was a visiting researcher. Sadly this program was recently disestablished as part of the many jewelry/metal/body object programs globally that are currently fighting for existence. Jewelry as an object is always in discourse with a body and Neumann uses it here to question a bodies: home, positionality, and sustainability. As studios disestablish, close, fracture or merge how will we build community and home for our work?
Settings and Findings:
This body of work revolves around the idea of ‘home’. In particular, I speak from the setting and context of a developed country situated in the pacific, that has a violent colonial history. This country occupies the stolen lands of the longest surviving culture in the world. The lands from which I speak are those of the Ngunnawal and Ngrambri peoples.
The investigation I bring to the table, the previous question I examine in this setting, considers the cost of living, which has risen astronomically in recent times. The prospect of owning a house is consequently more pipe dream than reality, as the price of housing is continually being pushed to new highs.
This series of work is a personal exploration of the meaning of home through the use of architectural motifs, material and surface investigations and wearability. Locally made brick that is no longer in production, a finite resource, carries the weight of preciousness. Dryer lint, a by-product of the lived experience of a home, brings a sense of familiarity and comfort. The two materials together frame the internal/external dimensions of the pieces. Recognisable features like the window sill and a protruding drain pipe place the structure from the urban landscape.
This precious setting yields the following finding: a token, a small thing that one can take with them, a synecdoche of the home, worn against the heart and close to the body. This synecdoche is an important reminder of the constantly unstable and changing conception of what constitutes a “home”, especially at this time when house-ownership seems so unattainable for so many.
Online Presence:
Instagram: @Kristina_Neumann_
Website: www.kristinaneumann.com.au
PHOTO CAPTIONS
Captions:
1. Boxed sill – Photo by Simon Cottrell
2. Homeslice – Photo by Simon Cottrell
3. Sill (front) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
4. Sill (back) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
5. All I have left – Photo courtesy of the artist
6. Cut-out – Photo courtesy of the artist
7. Interrupting line – Photo courtesy of the artist
8. Column 1 – Photo by Davey Barber
9. Rendered wall (front) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
10. Rendered wall (back) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
11. Dreamz – Photo by Simon Cottrell
12. Sill in cylinder – Photo by Simon Cottrell
Alt-Text:
1: Photograph of a long rectangular silver brooch featuring a downward sloping protruding ledge made up of miniature red bricks. The piece sits at an angle off a white background.
2. Photograph of a pendant which is layered with brick and a white material, in the form of a lower-case t. It hangs at an angle off a dark grey cord that is cut off at the top of the image.
3. Photograph of the front of a brooch in the form of a fragmented window sill, constructed of miniature red brick and sits on a white background.
4. Photograph of the back of a brooch in the form of an imagined back of a window sill, showing a silver clasp mechanism and sits on a white background.
5. Photograph of a pair of black textured asymmetrical silver sand textured rectangles with brass coloured gold hooks and sits on a white background.
6. Photograph of two asymmetrical silver square earrings that are textured and have a distorted surface, with a faint coloured line of paint around the edge. Sits on a white background.
7. Photograph of a pendant made of sand textured silver with a gold bar that loops through the top of the piece. Hangs off a light grey cord which is cut of at the edge of the image and sits on a white background.
8. Photograph of two silver textured round tubes that have a dark-grey curved hook coming out of the top of each. Sits on a white background with their respective shadows.
9. Photograph of a top angle down view of a pendant. Made up of a flat textured silver sheet with a 90degree bend on the left hand side and a silver pipe protruding out of the top right, hanging off a light grey cord off a white background.
10. Photograph of a top angle down view of the back of a pendant. Made up of a flat dark grey fabric sheet with a 90 degree bend on the right hand side with a silver pipe protruding out of the top left, hanging off a light grey cord off a white background.
11. Photograph of a pendant in the shape of a cinder (bessa) block constructed out of silver, with a grey cord passing through one of the negative spaces. CBR the Canberra airport code is inscribed in the internal space. Sits off a white background.
12. Photograph of a silver horizontal cylindrical pendant featuring a downward sloping protruding ledge made up of miniature red bricks. A grey cord comes out the top of either side of the piece and cuts out at the top of the image, piece sits on a white background.
1. Boxed sill – Photo by Simon Cottrell
2. Homeslice – Photo by Simon Cottrell
3. Sill (front) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
4. Sill (back) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
5. All I have left – Photo courtesy of the artist
6. Cut-out – Photo courtesy of the artist
7. Interrupting line – Photo courtesy of the artist
8. Column 1 – Photo by Davey Barber
9. Rendered wall (front) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
10. Rendered wall (back) – Photo by Simon Cottrell
11. Dreamz – Photo by Simon Cottrell
12. Sill in cylinder – Photo by Simon Cottrell
Alt-Text:
1: Photograph of a long rectangular silver brooch featuring a downward sloping protruding ledge made up of miniature red bricks. The piece sits at an angle off a white background.
2. Photograph of a pendant which is layered with brick and a white material, in the form of a lower-case t. It hangs at an angle off a dark grey cord that is cut off at the top of the image.
3. Photograph of the front of a brooch in the form of a fragmented window sill, constructed of miniature red brick and sits on a white background.
4. Photograph of the back of a brooch in the form of an imagined back of a window sill, showing a silver clasp mechanism and sits on a white background.
5. Photograph of a pair of black textured asymmetrical silver sand textured rectangles with brass coloured gold hooks and sits on a white background.
6. Photograph of two asymmetrical silver square earrings that are textured and have a distorted surface, with a faint coloured line of paint around the edge. Sits on a white background.
7. Photograph of a pendant made of sand textured silver with a gold bar that loops through the top of the piece. Hangs off a light grey cord which is cut of at the edge of the image and sits on a white background.
8. Photograph of two silver textured round tubes that have a dark-grey curved hook coming out of the top of each. Sits on a white background with their respective shadows.
9. Photograph of a top angle down view of a pendant. Made up of a flat textured silver sheet with a 90degree bend on the left hand side and a silver pipe protruding out of the top right, hanging off a light grey cord off a white background.
10. Photograph of a top angle down view of the back of a pendant. Made up of a flat dark grey fabric sheet with a 90 degree bend on the right hand side with a silver pipe protruding out of the top left, hanging off a light grey cord off a white background.
11. Photograph of a pendant in the shape of a cinder (bessa) block constructed out of silver, with a grey cord passing through one of the negative spaces. CBR the Canberra airport code is inscribed in the internal space. Sits off a white background.
12. Photograph of a silver horizontal cylindrical pendant featuring a downward sloping protruding ledge made up of miniature red bricks. A grey cord comes out the top of either side of the piece and cuts out at the top of the image, piece sits on a white background.
