Karin Findeis

Biography

Karin has been making jewellery since 1986 and has exhibited in Australia and internationally since 1988. She was born in Newcastle, a first-generation Australian of German heritage, and moved to Sydney to go to art school. Since then her life has been a pattern of making, travelling, teaching and studying. Much of this has been guided by interests in photography, language, other cultures and collecting remnants of the past. Her travels have included extended stays in Paris and Amsterdam, where she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie with Onno Boekhoudt, Marion Herbst and Ruudt Peters. After 8 years in Amsterdam she returned to Sydney to complete her Masters degree under Margaret West at SCA, satisfying an interest in bringing together writing and making.

As well as making, travelling and studying, she also curates and occasionally writes about jewellery. She has received support for her activities from organisations such as the Australia Council, the Australia China Council, Arts NSW, the Australia-Japan Foundation and Visions of Australia.

Since 1988 Karin has been a member of the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia-NSW and for the last 3 years has held the position of Chair. In 2006 she was the curator and coordinator of 'on Location: making stories', the 12th international conference of the Jewellers & Metalsmiths Group of Australia, held in Sydney.

Karin was recently awarded her doctorate from the University of Western Sydney with the exhibition 'samples' at the Macleay Museum, and with a thesis entitled 'Locating Author Jewellery: a taxonomy of contemporary objects'.

Research

The foundations of Findeis' work are based in the jewellery tradition; however, the real focus lies in the role that objects play in our lives. The portability and intimacy of jewellery provide a special context. Through the use of diverse materials such as wax, wool (felt), lead, hair and wood alongside precious metals, the conventional becomes personal. In making my jewellery she draws on broad interests and curiosities, such as belief systems, history, science and photography. The ideas behind her work treat jewellery as fragments and remnants; as visual narratives that have evolved from the origins of history, culture, and curious fascinations. The result is ‘bijoux’, jewellery that plays in the spaces between our experiences of the body and the world.

Recent Exhibitions

By example, Museum of Arts & Crafts, Itami Japan, March 2010

Winter Brooches, studio 20/17, Sydney, May 2010

sampler, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, October 2009

samples: A Taxonomy of Objects, Macleay Museum, Sydney, April 2008

Once upon a time, SCA Gallery, Sydney and CAFA Gallery, Beijing, July and October 2007

soft bits, e.g.etal, Melbourne, October 2005

'(some)Place' in Place, Object Galleries, Sydney, April 2005

Souvenir, e.g.etal, Melbourne, 2004

Something to write home about …, Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney, Tweed River Regional Gallery, Murwullimbah and Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra; Sir Hermann Black Gallery, Sydney, 2003/04

Metal Element VI, Quadrivium, Sydney, 2003

Publications

‘By example:’ Australian contemporary jewellery (editor)
USyd and Musuem of Arts & Crafts, Itami Japan, 2010,
ISBN 9780646527550

‘500 Plastic Jewelry Designs’ (contributor)
Lark Books, New York, 2009, ISBN 9781600593406

‘samples: & other collections’ (author) self-published, 2008, ISBN9780646492339

‘on location: making stories’ (author/editor) JMGA-NSW Inc., 2007,
ISBN 9780977506521

‘Hidden Cities: Beijing/Sydney’ (author/editor) USyd, 2007,
ISBN 9780975115177

‘Consuming the Object’, in Baines and Errey (eds), ‘Inherited Futures: Technologies to trap ideas’ (author/refereed paper), RMIT University Press, 2005, ISBN0864593694

‘We are what we eat’, in Burnett (ed.), 'Challenging Craft' (author/refereed paper) Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, 2004, ISBN 190108583x

‘Atopos & the consumable’, in Stair (ed.), 'The Body Politic' (author/chapter in conference proceedings), Crafts Council, London, 2000,
ISBN 1870145992

Research Supervision

Karin Jakobsson, MFA, 'Time and Being'

Luke Arnold, MFA, 'Pretty Boy'

Awards & Grants

2009, Australian Japan Foundation By Example (catalogue publication)
2009, USyd: Research Support Grant Awkward Objects Symposium
2008, Australia Council: Presentation and Promotion By Example: Australian Jewellery
2007, Australia China Council: Residency Project Once upon a time … jewellery from Sydney and Beijing
2007, Australia China Council: Beijing
2006, Visious Australia , Department of Communications, Training and the Arts
Luminaries National Exhibition Tour
2005, Australian Postgraduate Award, UWS Doctoral Studies
2005, Australia Council: New Work
2004, Arts NSW Luminaries: new work by leading contemporary jewellers
2003, Australia Council: Skills and Arts Development
Residency: Amsterdam/ St Petersburg

Professional Memberships

Jewellers & Metalsmiths Group of Australia – NSW Chair, 2007–10

Jewellers & Metalsmiths Group of Australia – NSW, Secretary, 2006–07

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