Shell pendant
Lisa Walker (New Zealander, b.1967), Artist 2007 © All rights reserved See full details
Object Detail
Description
Shell Pendant is characteristic of Lisa Walkers practice, employing the use of found objects to not only challenge traditional notions of beauty – a mechanism of contemporary jewellery— but also to challenge contemporary jewellery itself.
This work actively engages with the Bone, Stone and Shell Movement of the 1980s, New Zealand’s response to the international contemporary jewellery world’s critique of preciousness, which considered the intrinsic value of materials over their monetary value. Here Walker turns against the practice of using natural materials, creating a necklace out of mass produced plastic.
The use of the shell references contemporary jewellery history in New Zealand, while the plastic asks us to question our use of materials and our identification with them in a world that is becoming more global and mass produced.
This work actively engages with the Bone, Stone and Shell Movement of the 1980s, New Zealand’s response to the international contemporary jewellery world’s critique of preciousness, which considered the intrinsic value of materials over their monetary value. Here Walker turns against the practice of using natural materials, creating a necklace out of mass produced plastic.
The use of the shell references contemporary jewellery history in New Zealand, while the plastic asks us to question our use of materials and our identification with them in a world that is becoming more global and mass produced.
Title
Shell pendant
Production date
2007
Media
shell, plastic, waxed leather cordage
Measurements
Pendant: 200 x 170 x 70mm (h x w x d)
Cordage: 550mm (length)
Cordage: 550mm (length)
Credit line
Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 2015
Accession number
2015.6.1
