Neke and Karl

About Neke / About Karl

Kia ora!

I met Karl when he taught a lost wax casting class at Whitireia Polytechnic when i was a student there in my first year of the Degree course in 2003.  He was a real character and super enthusiastic about casting and wanted us the students to experiment,  go crazy and not confine ourselves to the limitations of the materials or processes.

I find Karl’s work fun and frivolous, unconventional and unexpected. He continues to push the boundaries of the ‘ring’ form with his use of materials and the way he assembles them .  Although he  trained in the more traditional silversmithing and goldsmithing areas he throws caution to the wind and  allows for form over function and creativity over technique.

Although culturally we are far apart we share a commonality through jewellery and art.  In his publication Metrosideros Robusta he describes his work,“…using conventional jewellery pieces as a grounding material in my work- like the epiphyte rata I added my attachment in gold or silver, nestling in or on a ring and also growing over entire pieces of jewellery”.

Karl has studied and used historic examples of jewellery to inform his work, looking back, understanding human attachment, obsessions and desires pertaining to jewellery.  A shared understanding for us both as i look to history and tradition to inspire me and push my creativity.  As Karl contains his making specifically to rings, i find myself drawn to Pounamu and jade as my main material source.   There is much room for improvement, experimentation and development and I believe as a mentor Karl will be great in these areas.

I know that Karl has a rich jewellery foundation and being able to work with him and share ideas and knowledge will greatly inform my own work practice.

April 18-20

School Holidays a good time for Karl and I to finally meet, our exchanges generally being on emails with times and dates that never seem to get filled.  But we met up at his studio and home in Island Bay on a gusty and sunny Wellington day.

So here we are both with our laptops discussing jewellery, family, laptops, photos and joking around.  Sometimes very hard to do much when you are having fun and being silly.  But that’s the great thing about Karl, he fits in well here in Kiwiland because he doesn’t take things too seriously!!  There are piles of his work strewn across tables in various states, he shows me huge and heavy rings made of bronze cast from  plastic animals, wearable? sure but only if you want some weight training for your finger!  This is it, there is a lot of play and prolific making, ideas are pulled from everywhere and anyone.  As we sit and i discuss some of my ideas, it sparks his own interest and relates his history and connections to me.

interruptions are many and his daughter Mia bored with what she was doing comes in on the action, he is solo Dad for the first part of the holidays as Lisa is in New York ‘representing’ as jeweller extraordinaire.  The challenges of family and work! we all juggle our commitments most of the time we wonder how things actually get done?!

So, I digress.. my ‘themes’ and ideas are related to past work and research into the oil industry.  It seems each year the relevance and regularity of this ‘theme’ affects our lives and continues to erk me more and more.  Sometimes I think its time to move away from it, but it rears its head again and I feel compelled to say something, do something in my work!  It feel especially angry when it is a ‘David and Goliath’ type scenario.  This is in relation to whats happening up on the East Coast, with the local Iwi, Te Whanau-a-Apanui and Ngati Porou not part of the consultation process with the exploration for oil in the Raukumara Basin.  Crown Minerals owned by the Government has given Petroblas(who has a terrible international record for environmental disasters)  rights to  explore for oil and gas in an unstable area and a food gathering area for locals.  No consultation, no rights for Iwi and arrested and given trespass orders after protesting which is the rights of all people!

“Greens co-leader Metiria Turia is welcoming news Petrobras has ended its seismic survey in the Raukumara Basin.

A spokesperson for the Brazilian oil giant confirmed the company wound up activities on Friday after completing the full survey it intended.

Ms Turei says Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Porou and Greenpeace did a great job of letting the company know it was not welcome in East Coast waters.

“The idea of making this country a very unpalatable and hostile environment for these guys to operate is I think the right strategy. Protesting when they‘re here, causing this ruckus when they’re here for the public to see and hear makes it very difficult for the company to feel like they’ve got a social contract to mine,” she says.

Ms Turei says the fight now shifts to the Canterbury coast where US explorer Anadarko wants to drill in deep water.”

http://www.waatea603am.co.nz/News/2011/May/Raukumara-ruckus-best-strategy-for-/default.aspx

After that wee discussion and some about Kumara, which came to my mind as an object in this fiasco.  I quoted a  whakatauki or saying to Karl.

Kaore te kumara e korero mo tona reka!    The kumara does not speak of how sweet it is!

He related to this saying to his home town where he grew up on a dairy farm, very interestingly something about cheese and milk?! sometimes hard to decipher German English..

I related the saying and also the words ‘Kumara’ and ‘Riwai’ as name calling for people who look one way on the outside and act differently on the inside.  Maybe this is a very Kiwi thing that we do this, but he did understand the relevance.  Therefore my analogy was related to Raukumara basin and to kumara as in the local Iwi and the Government and Petroblas the riwai or potatoes.  The saying being that if you go around talking yourself up then you might get eaten…mmm interesting.

We discussed heaps in my visit which lasted much of the afternoon, it was great to see his home and workshop and whanau!  Organised clutter with piles carefully pushed into there respective corners.  All the tools and equipment necessary (mostly) to make what he wants.  I was amazed at the studio him and his mate had built the workshop with no plans, but then big or small when you are good with your hands and willing to give it a go..anythings possible! Must be that Kiwi thing rubbing off on him!

So, from that we know Karl is a very busy man and even though we live half hour away from each other time is a shortage.. I will make and make and experiment with these ideas and see..

Friday 27 july 2011

Ahhhh the development of an idea….the seed, the roots, the vine, the leaves, the flower, the fruit….behold the mighty KUMARA

I am inspired by someone who doesn’t say very much, whose work speaks volumes and someone who gallovants around the world and spends little time on the computer.  It would be great to be just like you!  When I visited Karls studio those many moons ago, he had these huge bronze rings they were mammoth. One had some clumped bits of wax stuck to a plastic bull.  Wearable? of course.  The structure, randomness, solidness and the object itself were not hidden or abstract.  They were what they were not holding some intrinsic value or meaning.  They existed in the here and now, present and accountable, substantial and solid.

In my latest offering i have hollowed out some kumara and allowed them to dry and shape.  The transition from plant, to fruit to art work, likened to the stiffening of the kumara over time.  It has been an experiment to see how the kumara would turn out after I painted some of them and polyurethane the others.  A most interesting exercise, it narls up like a piece of old bark, slowly shrinking and hardening!

Still the kumara as a metaphor? If not a symbol, it has potency  in this country.  Each one of us has surely tasted its sweetness.  I have used it as an object in my work for all these reasons and more.  Politics is at the top of my list whenever i think of making work.  It is a big year in Aotearoa and the world,  we are clearly effected as a global community.  It is an interesting time with the Maori Party and the Mana Party, Don Brash and the Act Party.  Are we reflecting the extremities of politics going on all over the world?.  Left wing and right-wing extremists.  Targets for public scrutiny, politicians and political parties.

25.8.11

And so the Kumara Party visited the Australians leaving a trail of mould and mildew, a bad smell and unpleasant taste in the mouth.  Somewhat mimicking the biodegraded nature of New Zealand politics.  Do not be fooled, most of the Kumara Party may have been discarded in Australia, but Socialism and cultural integrity will see them rise once again, this time on home soil.

Handshake project so far…

 This  is the work  at the New Zealand jewellery show as part of the Handshake exhibition.  The ‘chalice’ at the top made out of jade, sterling silver and paint.  The move from the previous body of work to this has been a progression of ideas but still keeping to the kumara as the symbol and object.  The shape and form are recognisable as well as the material.  The kumara chalice has become a symbol and metaphor of “half empty or half full?”.  Why do we compromise our environment and our sovereignty ? No drilling and no selling of assets!  This is an important year for politics with the elections coming up and with what has happened with Rena and the probability of mining going ahead.  It is time to act…

Jemposium/Handshake at Toi Poneke

These were the only prerequisites and we needed to come up with plan.  Dates were thrown at us by Jaqui from Objectspace and we needed to get on with it! As usual we were busy and coming together to discuss things was very hard!  A few deadlines later we managed to meet up and formulate a plan!

So we needed some muka and decided to have a session at Karls house!! He did well and enjoyed the fibre and flax, learning quickly.  It was a test of patience and endurance, but we managed in the end.