Metadecorative - Jewellery by Mary Curtis

  • 7. Brooch with Pink Dots Metadecorative
  • 11. yellow brooch Metadecorative
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26 January  – 26 February 2012

Pataka is pleased to present Metadecorative, an important exhibition of work for contemporary jeweller Mary Curtis. Embodying her wide ranging research methodology in thought provoking jewellery objects, Curtis, who has been making jewellery since 1986, is particularly interested in the history of decoration. Metadecorative represents the outcome of an intensive period of research and making.

Publication essayist for Metadecorative, Grant Thompson, writes “’metadecorative’, the word Curtis solders together to title this exhibition, points to her work as decoration about decoration, as decoration that investigates the intricacies of decoration’s histories, languages and forms to produce new forms of decoration. For Curtis, these investigations have her exploring European museum collections, trawling library shelves, reading historical and contemporary writings on decorative arts and practices and sifting through the contents of second hand stores. While the research activities are diverse and the garnered treasures eclectic, the work at the bench is precise. It seeks to produce jewellery pieces that have the feel of the present through the quotation of remembered shapes, textures and patterns.” 

This exhibition has been assisted with funding from Manukau Institute of Technology.