2021 Catalogue Archive

Warwick Freeman’s works transform natural materials (bone, shell or stone) into simple shapes to create something heavily symbolic, or as he describes “sign-like.” He has a very reductive approach to making, preferring what he refers to as “lessness… I start to lose interest when it becomes too visually sophisticated… if I do complicate it I invariably regret it and look for a way to draw the idea back to a more simple moment.” Over his career, the elements of his jewelry have largely remained minimal, and this brooch is no exception. Two jade almond-shaped forms (a reoccurring shape for him in the mid-2000s) are embellished by a gestural flourish of oxidized silver wire that elegantly turns into the pinback of this brooch taking on a calligraphic quality. At first glance the piece seems to represent a pair of eyes, however the title and wire element would have you reconsider the assumption. Currently based in Auckland, New Zealand, Freeman began making jewelry in 1972, and his skills mainly are self-taught. Warwick remains an influential iconoclast in the field of Contemporary Jewelry. His works are held in many international private and museum collections.