A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand: Place and Adornment

A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand: Place and Adornment tells the remarkable story of how two countries, far from the jewellery centres of Europe and NorthAmerica, have managed to contribute to an international art form, transforming jewellery from an imitation of European taste into an original expression of place.

In this richly illustrated book, the first comprehensive history of contemporary jewellery in Australasia, authors Damian Skinner and Kevin Murray bring together detailed analysis of objects and historical sources to show how contemporary jewellery offered a way to negotiate relationships between settler and indigenous cultures, to find beauty in humble materials, to appreciate the natural environment, and to test conventions of art, gender and identity.

• Damian Skinner, Author

  Damian Skinner is an art historian, writer and Curator of Applied Art and Design at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. He is interested in the history of cultural contact between Māori and Pākehā, and the relationship between art and politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. He has written numerous books, including The Carver and the Artist: Māori Art in the Twentieth Century (2008) and The Passing Wold, the Passage of Life: John Hovell and the Art of Kōwhaiwhai (2010), which won the New Zealand Post Book Award for Illustrated Non-fiction in 2011.

• Kevin Murray, Author

• One of the book's strengths is introducing, no matter how briefly. a community of artists likely to be unknown to "northerners," starting with figures such as Alan Preston and the founders of Fingers Gallery.
  —Metalsmith