Ann Visser, whose exhibition Identity opens at the Sarjeant Gallery on Saturday, will give a talk at 1.30pm on how childhood memories of Putiki are evoked in her contemporary jewellery.
For the past 11 years Ms Visser has been successfully exhibiting and selling her work throughout New Zealand. In 1992 she
graduated from the Otago Polytechnic School of Art with a diploma in Craft Design, and in 1993 established her own workshop with the assistance of a QE II Arts Council grant.
Then in 1998, together with her business and creative partner Lily England, she established The Jewellery Workshop in Christchurch. It is from here that the work for this exhibition has been produced.
During the 1960s-70s Ann (then known as Jill), the youngest daughter of Dutch immigrants, grew up in Putiki on the banks of the Whanganui River, an area with a semi-rural feel with the Putiki Marae at its centre.
The body of work in the exhibition describes memories of Putiki, her parents (a seamstress and a builder), figures from the Wanganui community, the natural environment, places and landmarks.
Materials used echo those memories and draw on both the natural and human worlds, such as shell, dried protea flower and totara, corrugated iron, concrete, gold, silver and enamel.
Motifs include the huia feather, plant forms, the memorial atop Korokota, and the ubiquitous red corrugated iron roof. Saturday's talk is entitled Decades On ? The Jewellery Workshop and Ms Visser will be joined by Ms England. As well as discussing how the exhibition Identity evolved, they will speak about their journey from craft students to a professional partnership.
