‘The ART JEWELLERY BANK’ EXHIBITION IS THE SEED OF AN IDEA BY
ARTIST BRIDGET KENNEDY, that questions notion of why JEWELLERY, when
collected, is often never worn, hidden away from the public eye, as
well as highlighting the lack of presence of art JEWELLERY (often
studied as a discipline in art schools alongside sculpture, painting
and other more traditional art forms) in the collections of Art Banks
around the world.
The idea of building an art collection and making it available for
rent is not new. It happens in both the private and public sector.
South Africa and Canada are two Government entities, apart from our
own, that have created Art Banks that rent out Art to the public. The
Australian federally supported program, Art Bank was established in
1980 as a federal government support program, with the aim to provide
direct support to Australian contemporary artists through the
acquisition of their work and to promote the value of Australian
contemporary art to the broader public. Artbank funds its leasing of
artworks from its collection[1]. This fabulous initiative allows
contemporary visual art to be accessible operations through the to the
broader community in ways that more traditional collections cannot.
However, the inclusion of contemporary art jewellery is less common.
The Danish Arts Foundation, which began collecting jewellery in 1978,
is one exception to this and has now collected more than 300 pieces of
jewellery in their ‘jewellery library’ that can be borrowed when
attending a public event such as a concert, exhibition opening, film
production, or any other opportunity where the work can gain exposure
to the public[2].
The American based Art Jewelry Forum, a non-profit international
organization founded in 1997 also advocates for the field of
contemporary art jewellery and actively encourages the collection of
art jewellery through visual promotion of work, providing a platform
for discourse around collecting this art form.
For this exhibition, a number of jewellery artists were invited to
submit a statement piece of their own work which will be made
available for lease by the broader community, enabling these wearable
artworks to be made more accessible. The artists will also be making a
small collection of related work available for sale.
The exhibition also speaks to the share economy and
participatory/social art, an area Kennedy often explores in her
practice. As she explains, “the people who loan out the jewellery
will be invited to take a selfie of themselves wearing the work and
provide a few notes of their experience. This will then be documented,
building up a history of the work and its public interactions”.
She acknowledges the model for this exhibition is a little different
to a traditional art bank in that the artists will be lending work for
the show, rather than it being part of a collection. However, her
vision is that this seed of an idea might grow into something bigger,
her vision of an Art Bank, or Library collection of Australian Art
Jewellery (developed through public funding, with acquisitions either
donated to the collection, or purchases funded through leasing of art
jewellery) that is able to see the light of the day on the bodies of
people who value experiences over their wardrobes and delight in the
opportunity to promote Australian wearable art.
VIP OPENING DRINKS WITH 20% OFF RETAIL STOCK, ONE NIGHT ONLY – 28TH
NOVEMBER 5-8PM. EVENT RSVP
EXHIBITION CONTINUES UNTIL 23RD DECEMBER.
culture
art
exhibit
education
8121
Views
24/12/2019 Last update