Ring Master. Bilk Gallery for contemporary metal and glass. Until December 24.
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Bilk Gallery continues their tradition of focusing on a particular jewellery archetype. To date we have had exhibitions concentrating on earrings, chains and more recently brooches made by artists who exhibit with the gallery on a regular basis. Now in Ring Master the spotlight is on the ring - arguably the most intimate and personal item of jewellery that most of us wear.
![Bin Dixon-Ward, Ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied Bin Dixon-Ward, Ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/aea2f331-be04-439e-aacc-c79b706dcb06/r0_0_2000_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
I have just been in the Peloponnese in Greece visiting ancient sites and museums. I have been intrigued by the delicately carved intaglio gold rings from the Mycenaean era. These rings mainly retrieved from burial hoards look as if they were fashioned today. Yet in their intricate intaglio carvings, they depict images taken from everyday ancient society where religious ritual, war and the hunt were of prime concern.
Mio Kuhnen has made a series of beautiful oval rings in sterling silver and gold plated silver not unlike the oval forms of the Mycenaean rings. The artist has decorated them with rhythmic linear patterns in raised relief to provide surface interest and textural contrast.
![Julie Blyfield, "Leaf" ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied Julie Blyfield, "Leaf" ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9ed9c4cd-2f9f-4920-9817-38181ba815f1/r0_0_2000_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Marian Hosking's jewellery usually references nature. Her oval shaped silver rings with their raised reliefs of boronia flowers and cranes also recall the ancient Mycenaean style.
Like Hosking, Julie Blyfield's rings take their inspiration from natural forms. Petals and leaves are sculptured from silver and are clustered together in ring formations. Her Leaf Ring is particularly attractive with its veined leaves forming a protective shell around the finger.
Rings have long since been associated with human relationships. Johannes Kuhnen's two beautifully made rings - a gold band and a ring set with a Burmese ruby - are designed so that they can fit together as one entity. Helen Aitken-Kuhnen has also made banded rings in silver that are designed so that they can be worn with her elegant rings set with precious stones.
Philip Noakes' rings with their precious stones set in gold evoke tradition but also reflect his interest in contemporary design. Of special note is his oval gold ring offset with a sliver of green tourmaline.
![Philip Noakes, Pink sapphires and Diamond ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied Philip Noakes, Pink sapphires and Diamond ring, in Ring Master at Bilk Gallery. Photo: Supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/26ccdbbf-dea5-4785-9fd7-4fe6a7927cb8/r0_0_2000_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Julie DeVille's work Nanna's engagement bangle in silver and zircons is in a larger than life style of a traditional diamond engagement ring – it reflects deVille's fascination with historical styles and social mores of the past. The companion piece, a normal sized Nanna's engagement ring in white gold and diamonds, looks somewhat modest in comparison.
While some rings may be emblematic of benign emotions of love and pleasure, a series of witty rings by Mikki Trail (A lure and Reel me in) seem to play with the notion of romance as willing entrapment. However it may be reading too much into Cinnamon Lee's rings called Trapped to group them together as a comment on relationships. Lee's rings reflect new technologies as the two halves of each ring are digitally manufactured to entrap their round "beads" of silicon nitrate or synthetic stones.
Sean O'Connell also investigates "containment" in his two rings, the Knuckleduster ring that holds silicon nitride balls inside each joined "ball" of the ring and the Side ball ring that has small balls like ball bearings inside the hoop of the ring.
Other artists have eschewed traditional metals in favour of new and recycled materials. Vincent Pontillo-Verrastro has used photopolymer resin to create his aptly named jelly rings; Bin Dixon-Ward, who recently had a solo exhibition at Bilk Gallery, has made colourful waffle-like cubed rings from SLS nylon and Mark Vaarwerk has used recycled plastic to provide a tactile surface on the bands of his silver rings.
The Ring master exhibition at Bilk Gallery is an adventure that takes us into the creative imagination of some notable artists. They challenge our cultural perceptions of the ring as jewellery through the use of new materials and cutting-edge design yet they also acknowledge the long traditions of their craft and bring that knowledge and skill to their art practice.
A collection of rings by Julia deVille, Johannes Kuhnen, Helen Aitken-Kuhnen, Carlier Makigawa, Godwin Baum, Julie Blyfield, Melissa Cameron, Cinnamon Lee, Christopher Robertson, Sean O'Connell, Jane Bowden, Vincent Pontillo-Verrastro, Mikki Trail, Sam Mertens, Marian Hosking, Philip Noakes, Mark Vaarwerk, Bin Dixon-Ward, Helen Britton and Mio Kuhnen.