Lisa Walker (jeweller)

Education and training in New Zealand

Walker graduated from Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, in 1988 with a Certificate in Craft Design. In Dunedin her tutors included German-trained jeweller Georg Beer and Swiss-trained jeweller Kobi Bosshard. After completing her studies, Walker moved to Auckland, where along with Areta Wilkinson, Anna Wallis and Helen O’Connor she established the jewellery workshop Workshop 6.

Training and work in Germany

In 1995 Walker moved to Germany, and from 1995–2001 studied under jeweller Otto Kunzli at the ‘Klasse Kunzli’ at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München in Munich. In Munich, Walker established a successful international career as a jeweller, including being recognised with the 2010 Françoise van den Bosch Award for “work of an outstanding quality that influences and appeals to younger generations of artists internationally”. In 2009 Walker returned to Wellington with her partner, jeweller Karl Fritsch.

Work

Walker's work “questions conventional concepts about jewellery’s beauty and wearability” by using second-hand items and materials found in hobby stores, as well as non-traditional techniques such as glueing materials together. Materials she has incorporated into her jewellery include rubber bands, wood dowelling, sequins, tape, leather, paua shell veneer, stuffed toys, artificial grass, freshwater pearls, steel, lacquer and fabric. Art historian Dionea Rocha-Watt observes that Walker 'may have abandoned some traditional skills but is still referencing the history of jewellery, with a great sense of colour and composition.'

In a 2008 interview Walker said:

I work on several ideas and pieces at once, and don't prepare for exhibitions − I show where I'm at, at that particular time. Sometimes I work with an idea, sometimes with a certain material. Sometimes an influence repeats itself in pieces over a few years, sometimes one piece is sufficient.

Contemporary craft writer Andre Gali suggests that since her time as a student in Germany, Walker has engaged with the concept of 'desklilling':

With her background as a goldsmith, we can imagine that Walker could easily engage with the values and aesthetics of “doing something well.” However, deskilling and the use of readymades shift the value of the work away from craftsmanship—even though that is important as well—toward an artistic sensibility.

In a review of a 2015 exhibition of Walker's work, art critic Warren Feeney wrote:

Over the past 20 years, Walker has played a critical role in the development of contemporary jewellery in New Zealand and internationally, making work that confronts familiar perceptions about what a precious object might be. This ability to pose question after question about the possibilities of her work is apparent, not only in her comments about individual pieces, but equally in the range of materials, subjects, processes and scale of her jewellery.

In 2015 Walker joined the photo-sharing website Instagram. She has noted that the site provides a 'huge hunting ground’ for inspiration, and that currently she draws more from imagery she finds online than on obejcts in the physical world for starting points for her own making.

She has also collaborated with performance art/music group Chicks on Speed, initially when she met the participants while studying in Germany, but also in shows in New Zealand, contributing pieces from unused costumes, or works specifically created for performances.

A recent work by Walker made of pieces of pounamu was included as an illustration in New Zealand historian Barbara Brookes' A History of New Zealand Women as an example of how contemporary New Zealand jewellery reflects a sense of place.

Collections and exhibitions

Her work is held in a number of public collections, including the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The Dowse Art Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Significant exhibitions include:

For the Obstinate Object exhibition of contemporary sculpture at City Gallery Wellington in 2012 Walker contributed a site-specific piece called BROOCH, where a brooch fastening and steel safety chain were affixed to a gallery ceiling, suggested a visitor could 'wear' the building.

Walker's work was included in Collecting Contemporary and Bone Stone Shell at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (in 2011–12 and 2013–2014 respectively). She was also included in Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery, a touring exhibition that showed at Galerie Handwerk in Munich, The Dowse Art Museum and Auckland Art Gallery.

In 2015 Walker presented a guest lecture on her past and current work at Nordiska museet, Stockholm, co-organised by Konsthantverkscentrum, the Röhsska Museum for Arts, Crafts, Design and Fashion, and The School of Design and Crafts under the Iaspis programme.

Recognition