Everything is Holy: Artists Conversation
Saturday 31 May, 2025 2:00-3:00pm
Join artists Manon van Kouswijk, Inari Kiuru, and Cara Johnson in conversation with Funaki Gallery Director, Katie Scott, and Castlemaine Art Museum Director, Naomi Cass, for a wide-ranging discussion about the themes and artworks in current jewellery exhibition, Everything Is Holy.
Everything has the potential to be revered; to be transfigured from the mundane to the meaningful, regardless of its origins or perceived value. Jewellery has been associated with monetary value—gold and gemstones are symbols of status and wealth in many cultures. Yet, the artists here push against this convention, challenging what is regarded as valuable and asking instead, what makes something meaningful?
Inari Kiuru is a Finnish-born, Bulleke-Bek/Brunswick-based multidisciplinary artist, designer and a mother of two young children. The key themes in Kiuru’s work reflect her Scandinavian background, arising from an intrinsic longing for a connection with nature.
Manon van Kouswijk is a Dutch Australian artist and contemporary jeweller living in Naarm/Melbourne who explores shifts and transitions and how aspects of a work appear and disappear.
Cara Johnson’s craft-based works interrogate tensions and narratives connected to the ways land is treated and used through material, intention and invested labour. Her practice is entwined with her rural location on Gadubanud country, and primarily concerned with traversing the complexities between people and plants.
