`Australian Gold' provokes and challenges

By Rina Rao

JAKARTA (JP): Contemporary crafts are often ignored as being mere experimentation in the field of art and design. While to some extent that may be true, they do deserve attention as they alert people -- artist and viewer alike -- to the creative possibilities of the media they use.

Today jewelry and metalwork have lost their functional attributes and tend to be for display or ceremonial significance, or experimentation with form.

Australia Gold, an exhibition of contemporary Australian jewelry and metalwork on show through tomorrow at the Australian Cultural Center, includes the works of some noted Australian metalsmiths and affords a glimpse of Australian innovation, creativity and diversity in the area of contemporary design and the visual arts.

The works on show are innovative, provocative, and challenging to preconceived notions. The forms are created with richness and strength. The traditional associations of gold are challenged, and the artists often play, explore or undercut our expectations with humor and restraint. Gold is often used as a small highlight, a minor component amid less precious and less culturally-loaded materials.

Precision

Susan Cohn exhibits precision craftsmanship in her golden doughnut, three bracelets and an ashtray in fine gold and anodized aluminum. These pieces can also be used as a brooch, earrings or bracelet.

Thus she plays with the traditional concept of functionality and display, as well as the cultural associations of certain materials. Her work juxtaposes the mundane with the exclusive in a playful, humorous way with great technical skill.

Mark Edgoose's masculine forms are practical, functional and sculptural within an abstract framework. Color is used boldly, and the forms are startlingly modern. Bain-Marie and 6 Containers in titanium and aluminum employ high-technology industrial processes rather than traditional metalworking methods.

The lack of restraint in the mixing of metals and the freedom to explore form and materials has created an individual vocabulary that is unique. Though not immediately appealing, Edgoose's work is very innovative.

Mari Funaki's container in mild steel and brooches in 22-carat gold are a visual delight. They are minute and detailed, with sharp, crisp edges and a great sense of precision. Visual relationships coupled with careful craftsmanship are her hallmark.

Marian Hosking's pieces have simple shapes and forms, but she uses pierced decoration judiciously and skillfully. An interplay of light and shadow penetrates the forms, and compliments the surfaces with repetitive patterning. This creates a surface rhythm and spatial illusion. The open barn box and plate are cases in point.

Junji Konishi's creations are truly lovely. His works are sculpturesque -- fluid forms using gold and silver in an extremely sophisticated manner. Movement and rhythm in the various forms take wing in a burst of abstraction. While his Tea Service in silver and 18-carat gold and Candelabra are beautiful works of art, Distillation 2000 is an almost ethereal piece of sculpture in silver and fine gold.

Futuristic

Andrew Last's Eggs in space uses cast iron and cast aluminum along with a dash of gold and silver, which is quite appealing. The futuristic designs are inspired by flying objects and concerns of function, shape, material and scale are carefully orchestrated.

Carlier Makigawa's bracelets, brooches and neck pieces in silver, monel, gold, etc., explore the relationship between architecture, the human body and rituals, and are done with a playful ethnic touch. Christopher Mullins' bowl and rings explore geometric shapes like the circle, square and parabola, and contrast various color and surface treatments. Interaction between internal and external form is also articulated.

Miyuki Nakahara's set of four medallions uses the repousse technique with restraint and sophistication. Her four themes characterize her response to Australian iconography. Janine Tanzer's dishes and brooches in silver, gold and enamel use natural forms in an attractive and elegant manner. She reinterprets old forms in a modern context with modern materials.

Beatrice Schlabowsky creates forms based on circular and rectangular sections. She draws on folklore and modern technology to create architectural forms with a strong presence. A sensitive combination of materials and subtle surface finishes like pate de verre glass along with gold, monel and stainless steel give her work a special richness.

All the artists in this show emphasize simple and elegant form, functionality and fine craftsmanship, while drawing upon tradition or motifs from indigenous flora and fauna. Old techniques are infused with great technical skill and a strong spirit of renewal, creating forms with richness, humor and strength.