Parcours Bijoux: Emily Beckley & Connexions

Emily Beckley, a Meriam Mer/Kala Lagaw artist who has been working with The Indigenous Jewellery Project for several years, is the first Indigenous Australian contemporary jeweller to exhibit in Paris, with new work featured in the exhibition Connexions at Parcours Bijoux 2020, Galerie Assemblages, Paris, 13-25 October 2020.

Connexions is curated by Blandine Hallé and Melissa Cameron. Our aim in its conception was to introduce an international audience to Australian contemporary jewellery, its breadth and depth. This became augmented by what we as organisers wanted to share about Australia, versus what was at the forefront of the news media at that time; namely the mass-murders in Christchurch, perpetrated by an Australian.

This exhibition evolved to be a counter-action of sorts, aiming to present a cross-section of Australian makers with cross-cultural backgrounds, while showcasing artists with multifarious and deep connections to the human body.

Selected for their existing contribution to this dialogue, each of our artists mines and/or interrogates their own histories for their artwork. Together the complex, nuanced and diverse works that we anticipate from these artists will, en masse, portray Australia as a community that respects difference and honours diversity and complexity, more effectively than any single dialogue in which we might hope to engage.

Contemporary jewellery relies upon the human body for transmission, making it the most accessible and personal art form. This body-to-body connection heightens the visual spectacle of the works while acting as an inlet for diverse people and cultures to interface through simultaneous interaction – wearing and viewing. Through this exhibit we aim to connect the audience to us, to share our Australian identity.

Artists: Blandine Hallé – Eden Lennox – Emily Beckley – Fatemeh Boroujeni – Melissa Cameron – Sultana Shamshi

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