A solo exhibition by jeweller Sim Luttin at Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight Gallery presents The Temporary Nature of Things, an exquisite solo exhibition by jeweller Sim Luttin. Creating a piece of jewellery each day for one year, Luttin’s ‘3D-diary’ is a collection of work that has come to embody contemplations on life, time, and indeed, temporality. The exhibition opens on September 16 and runs until October 11, 2008. View Video

Musing over Luttin’s jewellery and objects is like taking a long stroll and stumbling upon unexpected discoveries along the way. There is both a refined quality and something more organic and spontaneous to Luttin’s work. In all cases, each piece capture’s the unpredictability of contemplations made in a single day.

Creating a piece a day over one year was part of Luttin’s MFA (Metalsmithing and Jewellery Design) completed at Indiana University, USA, 2008. Showing for the first time in Australia The Temporary Nature of Things displays a selection of the work taken from the larger body created. The overall collection was exhibited at SoFA Gallery, Indiana, USA in April, 2008.

Catalogue text by Randy Long and Nicole Jacquard

Of the exhibition, Sim Luttin says; “My current project explores the theme The Temporary Nature of Things, which investigates notions of beauty, nostalga, landscape, impermanence, and passing time. I am captivated by the deterioration of memory and how this is nostagically represented through minaiture objects, and also in terms of our emotional, physical and tactile interaction as a maker, wearer and viewer of the form.

The jewelry and objects reflect forms that are reminiscent of nature. They are about finding the beauty and poetry in the everyday…about discovering and noticing the little things that might otherwise pass you by…they are tiny observations that might otherwise go unnoticed. Each form draws the viewer in to look more closely at the detail and repetition contained within the object. In a sense, I am hoping to entice those who don’t take objects at face value, to take the time to investigate each piece; the undulating surface texture on each unit – the space it occupies and simultaneously contains.

Before studying at Bloomington, Luttin earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in gold and silversmithing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and spent two years in Adelaide as a Design Associate at The Jam Factory.. Nicole Jacquard — her former teacher in Melbourne, now an assistant professor in metalsmithing and jewelry design at IU Bloomington — recruited her to Bloomington’s program.

Since coming to IU, Luttin has been awarded more than 15 scholarships, fellowships and grants to fund projects that have earned her two consecutive Robert Harrison Awards for Excellence in Metalsmith and Jewelry Design. She’s been on panels, published in instructional books, and served as co-curator for a School of Fine Arts (SoFA) Gallery exhibit titled “Field of Vision.”

Pieces of Eight Jewellery Gallery

http://www.piecesofeight.com.au