Contemplating the Last Age of Wonderment

Background: The medium of this is work is Gold & Silvermithing: Miniature Sculpture and Jewellery. This work sits within the field of contemporary jewellery and object. A notable artist in this field is Australian Anna Davern who similarly works with an expansive narrative, as demonstrated in her work ‘Golden Lands of the Sunny South”, 2015. Davern uses diorama and figurative imagery to explore the dual mode of jewellery as both sculptural and wearable form, to comment on contemporary Australian culture. Contribution: 'Contemplating the Last Age of Wonderment' is a collection of three individual jewellery works (brooches) and one object work created through sculpting and fabricating original objects by hand and reproducing these in polyurethane casting processes. The jewellery fittings on the works are constructed from sterling and fine silver, using gold & silversmithing hand skills, and used as fixing accoutrement to combine the plastic components. The relationship between the hand made and the mass produced is questioned. Through the assemblage of each part a miniature mise en scène evolves, to suggest the museum/gallery space and the experience of the viewer within. The works are constructed from sterling silver, stainless, polyurethane resin, pigment and glitter. Significance: The significance of this research is to consider broader meanings of how the cultural place of jewellery expands beyond bodily wearability. The work was selected from a juried panel of industry professionals and Craft Victoria. This work is one of 50 selected finalist entries from 266 submitted entries for the 2019 The Victorian Craft Award, a significant national craft based award. This work was exhibited with notable contemporary craft practitioners; Anna Davern, David Ray and Vicki Mason. The work was exhibited alongside the 50 finalists of the Award at Craft gallery, Naarm/Melbourne. The Awards were supported by Creative Victoria and Bowness Family Foundation.