Pennie Jagiello, Inheritance, 2018-2019, dimensions variable (growing boys, growing concerns), Discarded inner tube. Photo: Pennie Jagiello

The Worn Debris Collective

Ruby Aitchison
Chris Bahng
Victoria Bulgakova (US)
Katie Collins
Lindsey Fontijn (NL)
Annie Gobel
Marcos Guzman
Jill Hermans
Pennie Jagiello

Cara Johnson
Djurdjica Kesic
Inari Kiuru
Wendy Korol
Christopher Earl Millbourne
Ailsa Morrant (GB)
Thomas O’Hara
Michaela Pegum
Nicole Polentas

Natalia Rumiantseva (RU)
Janika Slowik (DE)
Nadja Soloviev (DE)
Hiu Tung Yip (GB)
Katrina Tyler
Carolin Volz (DE)
Keri- Mei Zagrobelna (NZ)
​Lucrecia Zappegno (ES)

28 August– 7 September

Wed– Sat 11am-6pm

(OPENING)

Sat 7 September, 6-10pm

at 

Testing Grounds

1 City Road 
Southbank 3006

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE

Pennie Jagiello, Site-responsive material processes challenged by anthropogenic debris collected at Testing Grounds, 2018-19, various discarded anthropogenic materials, dimensions variable. Photo: Pennie Jagiello

The Worn Debris Collective investigates anthropogenic debris within contemporary jewellery and objects as the heirlooms we leave behind us.

Discarded anthropogenic materials collected around Australia during 2014-17 were sealed within numbered envelopes and selected by 26 artists from around the world. Instructions and contents provide challenges for individual response to these discarded materials, to be transformed and incorporated into new works, while considering one’s own practice and environmental impact.

Various creative strategies employed inform a collection of new heirlooms in place of more traditional jewellery and object inheritances, creating a wearable legacy for national discourse and wearing change for a more sustainable future.

Exhibition, workshops and multi-disciplinary collaborations invite public intervention to further question and investigate underlying themes, the often unsustainable practices and resource depletion of consumerist society, and what this means for our future in the era or error of the Anthropocene. 

Diamonds are forever, so is anthropogenic debris.

@theworndebriscollective @testinggrounds #heworndebriscollective #testinggrounds @_r_by_  @chris_bahng @victoria.bulgakova @_katie_collins @lindsey.fontijn @anniegobel @fakexican @jillhermans_ @penniejagiello @cara_johnson @dkesic_art @ordinari_observer #wendykorol #christopherearlmilbourne @ailsamorrant @tommy_ohara @npolentas @michaela_pegum  @tinvald.rum @janika_filomena @nadjasoloviev @yiphiutung.artjewellery @tyler_katrina @carolin.volz @keri_mei_z @lucrecia.zapp

Pennie Jagiello, Anthropogenic debris collected at Testing Grounds, 2018, various discarded anthropogenic materials, dimensions variable. Photo: Ruby Aitchison

(ABOUT THE ARTISTS)
​
Ruby Aitchison lives in Melbourne, Australia, having completed her Masters of Fine Art at RMIT University. Ruby is interested in organic activity when juxtaposed with metal, and her process-based practice initiates a dialogue between materials to develop objects as a visual description of their making. Her work has been exhibited locally, interstate, and internationally, participating in the No Filter program 2018, New Zealand, Talente 2013, Munich, and Marzee International Graduate Show 2012, Netherlands. She received the Future Leaders award at Fresh! 2014, was a selected finalist for Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2015, and awarded the 2016 Diana Morgan Postgraduate Award at RMIT University. 
 
Chris Bahng is a Melbourne based jeweller who uses 3D Printing technology to make his jewellery. He built up various artistic careers including associate program (2007-8) at Jam Factory Contemporary Craft in Adelaide, artist residency at the Bluecoat gallery (2009) in UK and co-founder at the SAM jewellery (2011) in Korea. 
 In 2016, he completed his PhD (ART) at RMIT University. Bahng’s the artworks produced have been recognised not only in Australia through Craft Victoria Awards but internationally through exhibitions. This resulted in the Schmuck (2017) Germany, the Marzee graduate in the Netherlands (2017) and Loupe (2018) in Hong Kong.
 
Victoria (Vika) Bulgakova was born and raised in the former Soviet Union, in a republic that is now Ukraine. She graduated from Music College and taught classical piano prior to moving to the USA in 1994. 
Vika received her BA in English Literature and MA in Graphic Communications from New York University; she managed development of software systems for financial and educational institutions for over a decade before completing MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art and becoming an exhibiting metal artist.

Katie Collins is a maker of jewellery and objects, based in Melbourne, Australia. Katie is a graduate of RMIT University with a BA in Fine Art (Honours), specialising in Gold and Silversmithing. Her work has been selected for national and international exhibitions, including the Itami International Craft Exhibition Japan, Mari Funaki Award Exhibition and Talente in Germany. In 2014, Katie exhibited her jewellery pieces at Galerie Marzee in the Netherlands where she was a recipient of the Marzee International Graduate Prize.

Lindsey Fontijn graduated from the goldsmith school in Schoonhoven and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Jewellery department, 2018.
My work revolves around the transformation of traditional jewellery in our everyday lives. Through my work I want to reveal the inherent entanglement of value and meaning, giving this relationship attention. Why do we appropriate objects from a traditional context and place them in a totally different one, in which the original meaning is no longer recognizable. I want to give more attention to what these changes do with these traditions and that the history and also craftsmanship will disappear if we don’t give them attention.
 
Annie Gobel’s is an Indonesian artist who currently resides in Melbourne. She has completed her Fine Art training in RMIT in 2013 and continued her practice in contemporary art jewellery ever since. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including curated solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and collaborative projects.
The nature of her work has been revolving around the idea of reminiscing childhood times. She celebrates the joy of playtime where toys, art activities and features of her drawings have big influences in her making decisions. She combines these aspects by applying the intuitive way of working – like a child.
 
Marcos Guzman. Working with acrylic and consumer plastics, and eschewing industrial processes for a handmade approach, Melbourne-based contemporary jeweller Marcos Guzman uncovers the subtle and precious qualities of his chosen materials. He uses vivid colours and graphic line work to create a sense of nostalgia for classic patterns, while evocative titles imbue each piece with a suggested narrative. Marcos completed a Bachelor of Fine Art specialising in Gold and Silver-smithing at RMIT and subsequently completed the Honours Gold and Silver-smithing course through RMIT’s Object Based Practice. He has exhibited locally in Melbourne, regional Victoria, interstate and internationally.
 
Jill Hermans completed her Honours degree in Fine Arts at Monash University in 2009 and has since moved back to East Gippsland to enjoy a sustainable lifestyle, off grid, in the bush.  Her practice is materials, processes and techniques driven.  Finding endless fascination in her chosen alloy; Shibuichi, a Japanese alloy of Copper and Silver.  By fusing and heat colouring Shibuichi, a wide range of iridescent colours are achievable.  Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Pennie Jagiello completed a Masters of Fine Art, RMIT, 2017, and Batchelor of Fine Art, Sculpture and Spatial Practice, VCA, 1995. Pennie has exhibited around the world, and was selected for the 2018 Galerie Marzee International Graduate Show.
 Pennie is interested in anthropogenic materials and unsustainable practices investigated through contemporary jewellery objects, as the wearable heirlooms we leave behind us for future generations. Her work is informed and challenged by what we discard, the importance of worth and value given to things until they are no longer coveted, what meaning they bestow when they become worn, and how these materials exist forever, impacting the natural environment and therefore ourselves.  

Cara Johnson is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University, within the Gold and Silversmithing department. Her work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including in the 2019 Mari Funaki Awardat Gallery Funaki Australia and Paper Art 2017at CODA Museum in The Netherlands.Cara’s work is held in various public and private collections such as the W.E McMillan Collection and the National Gallery of Victoria. 
 
Djurdjica Kesic holds a Master of Fine Art from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Interior Design at RMIT University.Djurdjica’s work moves across jewellery/object making and spatial design practices. She explores ideas of home, place, migration and change, working across a range of scales and materials.
 
Inari Kiuru is a Brunswick-based artist with a multidisciplinary practice encompassing jewellery, objects, images and installation. Born in Finland, she has a strong native relationship with seasonal changes. This drives her to observe light, weather and changing atmospheres, drawing parallels between our external and internal landscapes. 
Inari works with substances integral to the urban settings (concrete, glass and steel for example), revealing the poetic qualities in non-precious materials – and the surprising beauty often hidden in the mundane and the unexpected.
Inari migrated to Australia in 1995 and graduated from RMIT in 2013. She is represented by Gallery Funaki, Melbourne. 
 
Wendy Korol lives in Melbourne, Australia, and completed a Master of Fine Art by Research at RMIT University in 2016. 
Wendy works with immediacy to reinforce the immediate using malleable materials like clay, soft metal foil and mesh in a quick, intuitive and spontaneous process. Her use of colour, in the form of vitreous enamel and paint, reflects and enhances the intuitiveness involved in the making process.
Wendy has been selected to exhibit both nationally and internationally since 2012. Awards include the Don BegbieAward for Excellence in Gold and Silversmithing,and overall winner of Craft Fresh!  2011; and the WE McMillan Collection, RMIT 2011.
 
Christopher Earl Milbourne was born in Nowra NSW in 1984. He successfully completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts and A Masters of Fine Arts at RMIT University. He has exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally. In 2012 he was awarded the National Contemporary Jewellery Award. Milbourne has an interest in the small object particularly looking at the connection between functional and non-functional utilitarian objects and their perceived aesthetic within the confines of the built and imagined environment. 
 
Ailsa Morrant. Happiness has become a commodity.
Through jewellery, Ailsa explores the concepts of value, materiality and materialism to gently provoke us to reconsider and discuss why and how we wear or use jewellery.
She questions whether we are maximising its psychological benefits to build sustainable contentment, positive mental health and resilience.
Ailsa is fascinated by our relationship with and communicative use of everyday objects.
Her work investigates the primordial act of spontaneous, ‘in the moment’ adornment as a subconscious expression of a fleeting feeling, thought or sentiment, making it visible using an object from our everyday environment.  

Thomas O’Hara completed undergraduate studies at RMIT University in 2014 and then went on to postgraduate research at the Australian National University where he is currently a PhD candidate.  Thomas’ practice explores generative forms that are made from blocks of wood and assembled following a set of intuitive based rules.  These objects are then degraded through burning and sanding subverting their hand-built appearance.  Construction and order followed by destruction and chaos, Thomas’ work looks for a complexity that expresses a tension between the human and natural worlds.
 
Michaela Pegum. With more than fifteen years as a contemporary dancer and choreographer behind her, Michaela embarked on a Bachelor of Fine Art, Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT, she graduated with first class Honours in 2016 and is a current PhD candidate there.
Michaela’s practice centres on our capacity for deeply embodied and poetic relationships with the natural world. She explores how the ephemeral effects of environments and atmospheres become tangible sensation in the body and how their enigmatic and irreconcilable qualities may find articulation through the crafting of unique material forms.
 
Nicole Polentas received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Masters of Fine Arts and completed a PhD in 2015 at RMIT University and has successfully exhibited both nationally and internationally since 2007. Nicole has won numerous awards and her work is included in the Powerhouse and Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery collections. Her work is part of both public and private collections throughout Australia, Europe and the United States. 
She recently curated the international Greek jewellery show Unclasped at the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne. Nicole's research examines the ways in which the crafted object can transform lived experience into narrative forms.

Natalia Rumiantseva. My design is based on the cultural background and reflection of the visible world around. It is an ongoing process where attention to every detail and line in combination with different techniques create a connection between the objects appearance and the story behind.
Currently studying at Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design (MAFAD) BODY department, jewellery design, and previously completed KUMULUS Maastricht jewellery course, 2015;  KUMULUS Maastricht Vooropleiding Kunstacademie, 2013; Polytechnic College №13 Moscow jewellery course, 2012; Moscow State Conservatory Department of baroque and modern music, viola, 2011; Gnesin’s Musical College string instruments department, viola, 2009.
 
Janika Slowik was born 1993 in Nürnberg /Germany. After attending the one year art school Werkbund at 18, she discovered the field of contemporary Jewellery. She started her studies in the department jewellery and everyday objects in Pforzheim/Germany and fell in love with laser cutting, rapid prototyping and the interaction between traditional and contemporary materials and techniques. Afterwards she continued with the master program object & jewellery in Hasselt/Belgium, where she focussed on working with light itself. Currently she is doing another master in the field of art history in Nürnberg/Germany. 
 
Nadja Soloviev. Jewellery gives me possibility to involve people in my art. I am interested in the relationship, which can be created between the jewellery and its wearer. Change and transformation as well as participation are the key aspects of my work. I am inspired by ordinary things that one finds in everyday life, which I transfer into body-related objects. The results are conceptual pieces which long to be worn.
 
Hiu Tung Yip. MFA Jewellery and Body Ornament at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, MA in Jewellery and Metal at Royal College of Art. Currently based in UK.
I'm always drawn to the emotional aspects of jewellery. Every feeling that some may deem "trivial" or "ugly" is a source to my work. Jewellery has the power to express the most subtle sentiment for us.
 
Katrina Tyler’s practice spans jewellery, objects and public art, with a predominant focus on the materials and techniques of gold and silversmithing. Katrina’s work is sculptural, exploring real and imagined sites of intersection and co-habitation between natural and urban habitats. It offers a moment for reflection and contemplation about our place within the urban ecology and the omnipresent processes and cycles of life, industry, growth and decay, ageing and evidence of the passing of time.
Katrina completed an MFA in Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT in 2011, and has since exhibited jewellery, sculpture and been engaged for public art commissions. 
 
Carolin Volz. I was born 1988 in the south of Germany.After my apprenticeship as a goldsmith, I studied at the Jewellery Department at Burg Giebichenstein and graduated in 2018.
In my work, I collect traces of everyday human actions. By transforming them into jewellery, their meaning changes and overlooked phenomena come into focus. This can lead to a new perspective on traces and our relationship to objects.
 
Keri- Mei Zagrobelna “I use jewellery as my language and speak through my hands. My eyes hear my thoughts and translate.”
 My work aesthetic represents the connectedness to my immediate environment and upbringing. It speaks of cultural communication and interpersonal relationships through the language of jewellery.
Jewellery making is a medium by which I can communicate my heritage and world view to both local and global audiences. I seek to nurture and encourage others through my work, by way of my actions and choices as an artist.
 
Lucrecia Zappegno has a higher degree in Artistic Jewellery (Escola Massana, Barcelona) and a Degree in Sculpture (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba). Her work investigates three-dimensional forms of expression with the body as support.
‘I approach my pieces with a child-like creative and playful experience, taking elements from this language. My intention with the materials is not to generate more things than already exist, but transform and give them another meaning’