The Curator: Stella Chrysostomou

The Writer: Bill Manhire

The Jewellers: Fran Allison, Andrea Daly, Peter Deckers, Karl Fritsch, Caroline Gore, Gavin Hitchings, Erik Kuiper, Sean O’Connell, Lisa Walker

 
LIKE is a curatorial experiment that explores interpretation and translation across different artistic fields and media.  The project is the initiative of Nelson-based artist and curator Stella Chrysostomou, and it is framed as a scientific experiment into the processes of making.   It does not attempt to be a conventional display of objects but rather a presentation of the experiment’s findings.

The experiment began with the selection of an object that was simple and geometric but ambiguous in shape and function.  This object was then described in written form by leading New Zealand poet, Bill Manhire.  Manhire was instructed to describe the object in a way that was ‘rigorously objective (i.e. as free of  personal response as possible) and un-interpretive (i.e. ‘exhibiting no knowledge of materials or processes)’.

 This description was then sent to nine national and international jewellers who were asked to interpret and ‘decipher’ the object based on Manhire’s text.  Like Manhire, their challenge was to suppress any desire to personalise or stylise their re-creation of the object.  In both cases, the experiment imposed controlled conditions on the subjective act of creation in order to examine the cognitive and physical interpretations of objects and form.