Currently on display at Hurstville Museum & Gallery is the exhibition USE. This exhibition features exquisitely crafted contemporary jewellery and small objects by seventeen artists from the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia (Queensland Chapter), toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.
The longer you look at Catherine Hunter’s works the more you discover. She repurposes discarded everyday items and creates something beautiful while giving these items purpose once again. Catherine uses a wide range of different mediums to create her works such as traditional metalsmithing techniques as well as knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, felting and embroidery.
Catherine’s studies and career path has taken her all around Australia. Born in Coffs Harbour, Catherine grew up in Orara Valley, New South Wales, completed a Bachelor of Design at the South Australian College of Advanced Education in Adelaide and now creates her works on the edge of a mangrove estuary in Cairns, Queensland.
Catherine is an avid and accomplished seafarer in both a recreational and industrial manner. She has cited her time at sea, from 1989 to 2007, as having influenced her work greatly as she became aware of global environmental challenges. Catherine aims to raise awareness about the effects that discarded rubbish has on our environment and wildlife by utilising everyday items not usually incorporated into jewellery.
Her works Colour Restore Tests 1-8 are a striking and stunning addition to this exhibition, where everything is not as it seems. There are a variety of objects such as electrical cables, sheaths from acupuncture needles as well as cat fur which have been used to create these necklaces. It is a series of work one has to see up close and take the time to explore and discover.
USE is on exhibition at Hurstville Museum & Gallery until 25 October 2020.
Hurstville Museum & Gallery 