Don’t miss the first retrospective of a major museum devoted to Warwick Freeman, a pioneer of contemporary New Zealand jewelry.

By Sandrine Merle.

 

 

Once you have entered the circular gallery, a list of 24 words (Flora, Circle, Wall Work, Sentences, etc.) immediately indicates the thematic sequence. Warwick Freeman is not a fan of the chronological approach. It is true that his work has not experienced any real breaks and has been distinguished since the 1980s by its continuity, its coherence, its leitmotifs and its correspondences. Recurring themes include colonization by the English (he is Paheka), the culture of his country, the richness of its fauna and flora, but also Maori aesthetics.

 

The “Sentences”, poetic rebuses (horizontal slideshow)

The mysterious title “Hook Hand Heart Star” is made up of four emblems, four graphic jewels that are part of a much broader lexicon ranging from hook to star, including fish, bird, etc. These jewels function like words forming what he calls sentences. They are a kind of poetic rebus that the public is encouraged to interpret according to their culture and sensibility. Everyone has to hang one or more on their clothes because Freeman attaches enormous importance to the wearing of his work, for him the success of his work depends on it. This latest line-up echoes the first, on display here, which dates from 1988: “Fern Fish Feather Rose”, which symbolizes the richness of the fauna and flora of Aotearoa (the other name for New Zealand) with an intruder, the rose, introduced by the English.

 

The Freeman language, an immemorial echo

One of the most beautiful alignments presented in this exhibition dates from 1997: it consists of six pins, a sandstone and quartz shield, a red jasper spot, a green stone Karaka leaf, a pearl shell eye, a tortoiseshell bird and a cow bone tilted skull. His independent pieces of jewelry can be assembled and juxtaposed endlessly with others that are not part of this series. Regardless of the date on which they were created, they are part of the same family tree. It is impossible to draw up a list of influences because they are so numerous and intertwined. The highly abstract forms, a kind of hieroglyphics, neo-primitive, abstract and spiritual elements of language, oscillate between primitivism and ultra-modern graphics. “My found objects generally come from banal sources, but I listen for an echo prior to this form,” he says in the exhibition catalog.

 

An endless list of materials

The initiator of the New Zealand contemporary jewelry movement, Freeman was the first, from the 1980s onwards, to make use of local materials: Paua shell and pounamu, a variety of nephrite. He also uses bone, wood, stone, horse teeth, etc. The principle is to minimize human intervention with a few holes and notches, nothing more. He simultaneously transforms form and material: when he sees a primitive mask in a piece of an exhaust pipe, he materializes it in gold. When he notices an anthropomorphic shape in a matchbox, he transfers it to jet (fossilized wood).

 

In France, Warwick Freeman is known only to insiders, first because he works in contemporary jewelry, a sector that is not very visible and because New Zealand seems so far away… This exhibition is a rare opportunity to learn about his work: don’t miss it.

 

Banner image : “Sentence”, 2024 Scallop Blossom, Doodle Brooch, Mon (black), Mon (white), Black Leaf, Pāua Skull Photo Sam Hartnett, courtesy of the artist and Objectspace

 

Until 15.06.2025, Pinakothek der Moderne -Munich

 

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