In the year we celebrate Charles Darwin’s bicentenary and his paradigm changing theory of evolution, Julie Blyfield offers an exhibition that is a result of her own evolution over a career of over twenty years. Like Darwin, Blyfield’s themes emerge from nature. As a genre, ‘forms–from-nature’ are a common and occasionally clichéd, inspiration for jewellery design. However Julie Blyfield operates stratospheres above the pretenders in this genre. Her new work, Natural Selection, was developed in response to drought and its impact on the Australian landscape . Natural Selection represents both a departure from her metal work of recent years and a return to her use of mixed media.
Incorporating materials collected during a trip to the Simpson Desert and from her own garden, the works that make up Natural Selection combine precious metal, fabric tape with quandong seed and wood from a variety of native plants, including acacia and quandong. This has produced a collection of 33 neckpieces and brooches that express a quiet Australian-ness in-tune with the colours, forms, textures of plants of the arid environment and water stressed flora of southern Australia.
Gallery Funaki provides a crisp, uncluttered and intimate environment for appreciating Natural Selection. Laid out in two groups, the desert colour palette and textures are highlighted on Funaki’s simple white benches. The initial impression is of the bleached greys and whites of the sun drenched Australian landscape highlighted with rich olive, black and orange.
Blyfield’s study of the adornment making skills of Indigenous people has resulted in a respectful interpretation, rather than appropriation, of these techniques. In Burnt Orange Quandong Seed Brooch 2009 (Figure 1) the woody, pocked seeds of the quandong are coloured with a rich glossy orange and connected in a circle to form a brooch. The palette is minimal and the impact is initially, bold and simple. A more considered examination reveals a talisman that expresses a deep empathy with Australian flora, toughened and evolved to survive in the harsh elements.
From the late 1990’s Blyfield’s interest in botanical elements and pattern has resulted in forms that suggest leaves, wood, seeds, pods, flowers and river pebbles. Both jewellery and vessels are created with engraving, chasing, raising and repousse to express her designs. Wreath 1998 (Figure 3), is a neck piece made of computer engraved oxidised bronze combined to form a string of a single, repeated precise curved leaf/petal shapes, inscribed with computer engraved lines. The precise shapes of Wreath made way for the highly textured irregular forms of A Stitch In Time Saves Nine. 2001 (Figure 4). Here we see the, by now signature application of fine detailed texture in Blyfield’s jewellery and objects.
The neckpieces and brooches that make up Natural Selection, combine Blyfield’s familiar repoussed and chased metal forms combined with natural materials as in Black and White Desert Acacia 2009 (Figure 2). Rods of acacia, quandong wood and the pitted spherical forms of quandong seeds are treated with paint and wax, and finished to a rich gloss. The wooden acacia rods form the structure of the pieces as in Green Desert Acacia 2009 (Figure 5) and Black and White Desert Acacia 2009 (Figure 6). This viewer was not entirely convinced with the use of the blackened silver connecting elements in these pieces. The structural elements revealed too much of the framework supporting the brooch, without making material and conceptual reference to the chased leaves and the coloured and waxed wood.
In the Darwinian sense, natural selection is the generational change where a species develops characteristics that make it better adapted to survive in its environment. In a bird this might be a long beak to fish worms from the sand, in insects it might be a wing pattern that provides camouflage; with Blyfield, Natural Selection is the result of more than 20 years of evolution of her techniques and interests. Blyfield’s visual language integrates her studies of Indigenous artwork and traditional techniques, with her botanical studies and her own explorations in the art of working metal.
Blyfield’s contribution to the complex area of a visual language of ‘Australianness’ through her making is subtle yet powerful. While her motifs are botanical, her treatment and presentation reflect an unswerving commitment to capturing an Australian character through colour, texture and references to Indigenous art and making techniques . The natural materials chosen have the potential to be reduced to a jingoistic ‘green and gold’. However, in Blyfield’s hands, the subtle and limited colour palette of olive green, black, orange and blue/greys with occasional highlights of gold, reveals a much more sophisticated appreciation of our national flora.
Bibliography
Blyfield, Julie. "Natural Selection - Artist statement." Gallery Funaki, 2009.
Cochrane, Grace. "Handmade at the heart of things." Object, 2004: 20-24.
Gray Street Workshop. Gray Street Workshop, Celebrating 15 Years, 1985-2000. Adelaide: Gray Street Workshop and Object, Australian Centre for Craft and Design, 2000.
Marshall, Marion. "Diversity, Texture, Richness." Lemel (in Association with Object Magazine Number 1/99), 1999: 35-36.
Moore, Ross. "Hunters and Gatherers." The Age, April 3, 2009: 19.
Radok, Stephanie and Richards, Dick. Julie Blyfield. Adelaide, SA: Wakefield Press, 2007.
Radok, Stephanie. "Wild Nature: An Australian place." Object, 2003: 76-77.
Bin Dixon-Ward has over 25 years experience in arts management and programming in a variety of settings, including local government, small companies, community organisations and public spaces. She has set this aside, to pursue a longtime creative interest, and is currently studying Gold and Silvermithing at RMIT in Melbourne.
