What is jewellery? Could it be a quilted pillow attached to a loop of string? Or a plaited length of plastic adorned with halved mussel shells? New Zealand-based artist Lisa Walker has been exploring this concept for almost 30 years. Presenting over 200 works spanning her career (all the way back to Lisa’s student days), RMIT Design Hub is currently hosting the largest-ever Australian exhibition of the prolific artist’s work, Lisa Walker: She wants to go to her bedroom but she can’t be bothered.

‘The title is about time,’ explains Lisa, ‘it touches on many aspects of life, how fast we work, the tempo of our lives, downtime, technology and the extra, or the wasted time it now gives us.’

Lisa Walker: She wants to go to her bedroom but she can’t be bothered delves in the artist’s ongoing research that questions the tools, methods, and materials for making jewellery, pushing the boundaries of what is wearable and unwearable, skillful and unskillful. With nearly three decades of contemporary jewellery on display, the exhibition also reflects social and political developments reflective of the times.

In relationship to the retrospective is All the jewellery, an exhibition by Kate Rhodes and Nella Themelios. Each week members of Melbourne’s creative community will come together to discuss a question around contemporary jewellery, its response taking multiple forms at a weekly workshop on Wednesdays from 12.30pm-1.30pm

Lisa Walker: She wants to go to her bedroom but she can’t be bothered
January 29th-May 4th
Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm Saturday, 12-5pm
RMIT Design Hub
Building 100
Corner of Victoria and Swanston Streets
Carlton, Victoria