Tea Cup 2
Everybody's Keys
Kakapo Snips
Photographs by Nick Barr |
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Joe Sheehan
2006 New Generation artist
Stone Artist and Jeweller
Born in 1976, Joe follows in his father’s footsteps as a jade-worker, taking a contemporary look at the relevance and position of greenstone carving in today's world.
Joe concentrated mostly on jewellery and metal skills while at University, studying contemporary jewellery at Unitec in the mid-90s. He has since worked in carving studios nationally and has visited nephrite-jade deposits around the world.
His recent work has looked at the commercialisation of the jade industry and the limitations it places on jade and its potential as a medium for relevant art practise, asking why much modern greenstone carving looks like museum-held works, rather than objects of this time. Seeking fresh responses and processes, Joe plays with social and cultural contexts with his work, presenting pounamu and jade objects that speak first about their object status and second about their materials. There is a conceptual background evident in his work, where he utilises international materials and forms to address the way jade’s cultural associations are marketed.
Joe had his first solo show Stonedog at Avid Gallery, Wellington in 2004, in September 2005 exhibited Limelight at Objectspace, Auckland and most recently in October 2006 exhibited Clean Green at FHE gallery in Auckland.
Along with more traditional forms of jewellery such as a necklace made from several hundred precision-cut discs of Russian Nephrite, other jade and pounamu works have included meticulously rendered ballpoint pens, a working lightbulb, a cassette tape that plays a recording of a river, sunglasses, and AA batteries. The skillful handling of hard stone combined with some hard thinking makes these everyday objects thoughtful commentaries on the way we see things.
Joe moved to Auckland in 2008 where he is now working in a new studio space |
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