Past exhibition: ‘Ad Astra per Aspera’

When I moved to Melbourne (to study goldsmithing) the first exhibition I visited was the 2003 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Graduate exhibition ‘Ad Astra per Aspera‘, which translates to ‘to the stars with difficulty’, at the Melbourne Gold Treasury Museum.

This was a key moment for me – I wandered around the exhibits and felt like I was in the right place; that this was something I not only wanted to do, but felt I was able to do, and it made sense to me and almost felt like home.

catalogue cover; catalogue designer: Lachlan Conn

There were two works here that I connected to immediately and still remember their impact quite vividly:

• Sarena Mazzeo ‘neckpieces‘ – the two necklaces were made of crocheted components with a back-clasp out of satisfyingly substantial sheet metal cut in the same pattern as the crocheted pieces; I remember having an ‘ah-ha’ moment seeing these, that jewellery didn’t need to be all about metal and could incorporate not just the traditional crafts I had learnt as a child but the traditional materials too
• Melanie Katsalidis ‘shelf to life‘ – a delicate sculpture of a tree from MDF; the catalogue shows a detail image and not the whole piece, so the scale and details have become fuzzy with time; but it was the acceptance of this artistic expression within the confines of the degree I wanted to do was a sign to me that the way this discipline was taught here was going to give me enough breadth to explore both materials and scale

The 2003 graduate year included some makers who have since become pretty well-known (in alphabetical order):

• Kathy Aspinall [website; Kit and Caboodle]
• Matthew Bracken
• Caitlin Boyce [blog; Kit and Caboodle; Pieces of Eight; e.g.etal]
• Naomi Boyle
• Pandelis (Lee) Douros
• Nina Ellis [Pieces of Eight; Studio Ingot; e.g.etal]
• Lucy Folk [website; Pieces of Eight; previous post]
• Carrie Garth
• Linda Hughes [Studio Ingot; Craft Vic; previous post]
• Jasmine Johnston
• Vikki Kassioras [blog; e.g.etal]
• Melanie Katsalidis [founder of Pieces of Eight]
• Hong-Rye Kim
• Jun Hwan Kim
• Teresa Lane [Pieces of Eight; Studio Ingot]
• Danielle Lu [blog; Kit and Caboodle; Studio Ingot]
• Simone Luttin [website; Kit and Caboodle; Pieces of Eight; Studio Ingot]
• Sarena Mazzeo
• David Neale [website; blog; Kit and Caboodle; Gallery Funaki]
• Katrina Tyler [Kit and Caboodle]
• Renee Ugazio

Looking back through the catalogue (which it can truly be called, as this was before the accompanying publication became a ‘book’ which included essays), the skill-level of these makers still impresses me. It’s a delight to be reminded of the beauty of the work.