This collaboration by four contemporary artists - three jewellers, , and one abstract painter Ziatas under the title ‘Fledged and Flying’. This title is especially applicable to the jewellers Langton,Walker and Seldon. All are recent graduates from Central TAFE School of Art and Design in Fremantle yet already making their presence felt in the contemporary art jewellery genre.
Pamela Wilmot Ziatas, on the other hand, is a well-established artist who has produced a collection of work that provides a vibrant and stimulating backdrop for the jewellery. The canvases are suggestive of vast, expansive landscapes, especially Answering followed by Questioning and the series of eight canvases titled A Shore Meeting. Earthed is a particularly strong work with its sombre colour and horizontal line element. The boundless feel of the canvases belie the fact (which she notes in her artist’s statement) that the works were produced in a small 6’ x 5’ room with one window!
A rather peregrinatious lot, these jewellers, all three have emigrated from other countries – Louise Gore Langton from England, Jane Walker from Kenya and Joe Seldon from the U.S.A. In spite of their far flung origins, their work is celebratory of Australia’s natural resources and lifestyle. Louise Gore Langton’s fun, capricious pieces beg to be played with. The Kwinana Ring is stunning with its coloured Perspex discs hovering on the ends of wires in discombobulation high above the ring band. The spore bangles are fun too, as are the necklaces constructed of nylon monofilament that light up. The Sewing Kit for a Yachtie is a charming piece featuring a compass dangling from the end of a series of bobbins and needle case fashioned into a pendant. Langton's creative combination of both modern materials and traditional precious metals and stones add vibrancy and colour to her body of work.
Jane Walker has used an array of metal treatments in her work. The pieces woven from thin copper and silver wire, especially the decorated cuffs, are feminine, delicate and whimsical. A pair of earrings titled Norwest Waters feature Mokume Gane – a rather difficult metal finish to produce, with akoya pearls and gold to make a very covetable combination! Walker has come up with an ingenious design idea too – elegantly constructed post earrings called Night Lily with a detachable drop in both sterling silver and gold, for a versatile accessory. Her choice of precious and semi-precious stones include pink agate, moonstones, carnelian, eudolite/seaphrite and diamonds as well as Abrolhos pearls and other beautifully hued baubles. Her technical skills are beyond reproach as is her 'classic contemporary' design aesthetic.
Joe Seldon’s fragile looking leaf and flower pieces have been painstakingly forged by hand with hammer and anvil. The finished item contradicts the hard work that has gone into giving the work its delicacy and subtleness. This is especially so with the necklace titled Meeka, a sterling silver chain featuring several exquisitely coloured leaves formed from titanium, a particularly hard metal to work. Seldon's work typifies the expression 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'. One beautifully crafted precious metal leaf hangs from a meticulously formed ear wire to provide perfect counterbalance. Fine-spun silver 'string' bangles coiled to provide soft undulations to the wire. A silver flower punctuated with a small pearl, blooms from the end of a pin. The integrity of Seldon’s work is its greatest asset.
When viewing this exhibition one is presented with an inspired collection of work worthy of the drive up Great Eastern Highway to Mundaring. The quality and variety of the artists’ contributions won’t disappoint.