JEANETTE James has the benefit of many thousands of years to help perfect her art. Not that she's stumbled upon the fountain of youth. Rather, she makes shell necklaces which are a traditional Tasmanian aboriginal art form. Fabulously, through her work, the past alchemises with the present.
Aboriginal custom dictates that these prized necklaces are made only by women, and the skills and tradition have been passed through generations. Tasmanian aboriginal history goes back 35,000 years. There is a lot of past and yet not so many women are involved.
The few practitioners of this ancient art, like James, think their ancestors walk with them when they are out collecting shells. 'I am a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman who is very proud to be one of only a few women practising the traditional art of shell necklace stringing, which has been passed down through my family.
'This age old cultural art of collecting and cleaning shells to make beautiful necklaces was taught to me by my mother,' says James, who takes long walks on beaches with her mum to collect the shells. The mother-and-daughter team collect shells for four to five months each year, and they have favourite spots which they go to such as the Bass Straits Islands.
'Sometimes we find enough shells to fit in the palm of the hand and we think we have had a good day. It's a matter of continually looking - doing it continuously over the years,' she says.
Mariner shells are the most prized. The process of collecting them and making a necklace can take up to eight months. She adds: 'I have recently started to work with echidna quills and have found them to be an interesting but challenging medium.'
James' work will be part of an exhibition of Tasmanian artists at Curiocity, a new lifestyle gallery located at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' School of Fashion Studies campus. The Tasmanian exhibition will be part of the Singapore Design Festival which will be held from Nov 28 to Dec 8.
Singular & Multiple: New Jewellery from Tasmania displays the diversity of creative design from Australia's island state. The exhibited works range from fashion accessories to striking exhibition pieces such as the traditional Aboriginal mariner shell necklaces.
Curated by Kate Rhodes (Craft Victoria) and Brian Parkes (Object, Sydney), the project brings together two areas within craft and design. It explores the thread between exhibition and production jewellery, that is, the singular and the multiple. The exhibition considers the differences that emerge in the construction of a collection or range of accessories and the creation of more experimental one-off pieces. Ten Tasmanian designers will be featured in the Singapore exhibition and all their pieces will be for sale.
Most people know Tasmania as one large island, roughly the same size as Ireland. But the state consists of around 300 islands and the tradition of making necklaces from hard-to-find mariner shells comes from some of the wanderlust-inducing beaches on Flinders Island, off the north-east coast of the main Tasmanian island.
Like Ireland, Tasmania abounds in artistic inspiration. The state seems to claim a disproportionate number of artists and writers for its population of a mere 500,000 people.
Look at any map of Tasmania and you might think that the cartographers have gone a little overboard with green, but the universal indicator of verdancy is not misplaced. Some 20 per cent of the main island consists of World Heritage Area. This is a wilderness that both collectively defines the state's soul and inspires its artists.
Tasmanians are rightly proud of their wilderness, their ancient rainforests and their abundant wildlife including the endemic Tasmanian devil. But Tassie is much more than a mighty tranche of priceless green.
Tasmania has a reputation for fine food and wine. Fresh seafood, pinot noirs and sparkling wines benefit from a clean and green image that has a delicious association with the wilderness.
According to Australian demographer Bernard Salt, a partner at KPMG, these days there is almost a green chic element that has attached itself to Tassie. The state's plethora of designers and artists might benefit from the edge of the world inspiration found in Tasmania but they are also part of the chic.
The Bett Gallery in Hobart, the state capital, deals in quality works of Aboriginal art. Click onto the Bett website and you'll find that many of the necklaces have 'Sold' stickers on them. The gallery is just one of many in the city.
Marisa Molin is another artist whose work will be on show at the Tasmanian exhibition. Since she moved to Tasmania from Queensland, her work has changed dramatically. Molin's forays into Tasmania's wilderness, including walking the five-day Overland Track through the World Heritage Area around Cradle Mountain, are often her muse. 'The collective inspiration to my work is from the enchantment of nature,' she says.
Molin's pieces include intriguing bronze and silver rings and her work captures the textures of nature, including fragile minutiae. 'I don't make a ring just for the sake of making a ring. It is a ring that possesses a story of its location,' she offers.
Both Molin and James will be at the exhibition in person. James plans on making herself available to as many Singaporeans as possible to explain the cultural background of her works. No doubt you'll find James and Molin as inspiring as their art.
