BARBARA NANSHE

Barbara Nanshe

Artist and jewellery designer Barbara Nanshe lives and works in Newcastle NSW.

Nanshe is an environmentally conscious brand of Art and Jewellery and Design.

Nanshe sources ethically supported materials, hand makes elements for her ideas and combines salvaged antique and vintage parts in her work. She uses 90 to 100% recycled gold, sterling silver, brass and copper. The following pages show case her new sculptural works for her forthcoming exhibition Metamorphosis at Straitjacket Gallery in Hamilton, Newcastle.

Page 166 : Birds in Transition To Nowhere, Mixed media with feathers, Copper, 2023; 1180 x400mm; 80% recycled.

There are those of us awakened to the knowledge that everything is interconnected and humans cannot exist without the inherent and balanced energy of planet earth and the atmosphere the planet is immersed in. I believe the world faces an opportunity to grow and regain balance and equilibrium if we can recognise our connection to all and everything and strive to regain balance in the transaction of energy. We can change our direction. Embrace creation instead of destruction. Be a part of the garden not lord over it. Connectedness is a tool to help us realise humans are only part of a much bigger force. It give us not only compassion for every other being but flow and balance in the whole system. There are only 2 directions we can go. Forward or back. I don’t accept that it is too late to rethink and take full responsibility for where our thinking has taken us, but we need to Change Direction Now. Barbara Nanshe Studio - new shop opening on 27 MAY at 2 Wallace Street, Islington, Newcastle NSW.

Go online or call for appointment, 7 days PH : 0477505332 https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Change Direction Now - Metamorphosis Exhibition of wall sculpture.

Opening July 22 11am - 5pm STRAITJACKET GALLERY https://straitjacket.com.au/

Inside The Sea

Mixed Copper wire and cast copper, Shell from Kelso Tasmania, 2023; 470x470mm; 80% recycled. I believe all living things exist in and are part of, an energy field. There are infinite universes within universes transacting at the same time. All are connected and rely on balance to exist. We are phenomenon in phenomena. Our bodies exist of water; carbon; billions of organisms; electrical impulses, colour, light, darkness. We have billions of other organisms inside us and around us all the time.

From Where Have You Come and Where Are You Going?

Mixed media and copper, 2023; 590 x 420mm; 90% recycled.

To get to where we are on the evolutionary time line, humans historically have seen all forms as separate, not connected entities. Modernism taught individuality, singular purpose and duality. Continuing to not see the connection leaves humanity in danger of furthering the destructive trajectory we are on as a species. We are watching as multiple species slide into extinction without thought of the repercussions. It baffles me that we are loosing species at an alarming rate yet we still choose the trajectory that puts economics before clean water, air; living earth, organisms and other species; the planet.

Forward From The Heart, (Remembering the Maia People).

Mixed Copper wire and cast copper, locally cut Mookaite from Mooka Creek WA, 2023; 600 x120 mm; 70% recycled.

The only Known source of the stone coined "Mookaite" was sourced from the traditional lands of the Maia People at Mooka Creek, (Mooka meaning running water). It has been quarried from the area since the mid 1960's by local specimen miners. Microscopic examination shows Mookaite consists of the remains of tiny creatures known as radiolaria, that have an unusual skeletal structure of opaline silica. Billions of these were deposited as sediment in the ancient sea-beds of shallow seas. When the seas retreated, these sediments were cemented into solid rock by the silica.

Remembering the Maia People Maia traditional lands extended over an estimated 12,000 km2. They consisted mainly of a strip on the coast facing the Indian Ocean, and a western hinterland and up to and beyond Boolathanna, Mooka, Mardathuna, Binthalya, and the Kennedy Range. They also lived around the coastal salt lakes near Canarvon to Manberry and Hutton Creek. Their southern flank ran down to the floodplain of the Gascoyne River, and on Lake Macleod. The Maia are believed to have been extinct by 1910. Their area was afflicted by diseases like smallpox and influenza which ravaged the coastal populations after the establishment of pearling stations on the coast, at Shark Bay and Cossack. Subsequently, a culling of hands to work the pearling trawlers, and a system of indentured labour imposed on the tribes -found by pastoralists on their runs- effectively decimated the Maia by breaking up their kinship groups. All materials are energy. All formed somewhere on earth or in the universe. We can change the form but not the inherent energy of the base material. Copper is a conductor of energy (heat) no mater how humans adapt its form to suit the use. Humans have evolved raw materials into all manner of forms to build a new world for ourselves.

Earth Morphs Sun.

Copper, Zinc, Enamel, Patina, 2023, 200mm x170mm, 95% recycled.

Copper, in different forms, is a big part of my work because of it’s malleability and availablility as a recycled material.

Copper speaks to me of impermanence and earth energy. I use it symbolically to represent the conduction, encompassing, weaving and morphing of energy. I use copper to weave, knit and shape to symbolize the creation and woven fabric of our world. Woven around the figures it represents the energy force field around us all. I recognise my connection to the earth and the changing cycles.

I represent so many women who have voiced their dismay or delight regarding our relationships with the planet. Each figure symbolises us as made of earth imploring, praying and hoping for a better future; immersing, meditating; birthing.

Woven Bodies

From incomplete work, 2023, from 100mm to 150mm each, copper, enamel, patina.

When you look at my work I want you to connect with earth energy.

I hope you ponder land, sky and Sea; impermanence; hope; transition; honour, metamorphosis; your relationship with other energy bodies.

I want you to feel your way, to be with sea consciousness; live in the air with birds; see the wonder of different plants; recognise the intelligence of fungi and so much more. Be the energy to change direction now

Sea Body

Whale Vertebrae cap from Beached Pilot Whale, 1920 Tasmania, Anemone Shells, Kelso, Tasmania, Sterling Silver, Patina, 1970s TV Antenna cable, Copper 2023, 90% recycled. Though forms appear to be separate, when one form is juxtaposed with another the energies merge or overlap. Light energy changes the appearance all form. I believe that to be in the proximity of so many divergent energies should help us understand that we are not separate. Each connected form is pure energy and is in transaction with our energy. Anything in proximity is ultimately part of us. How can we not feel ourselves part of the creatures, earth, wind, sea etc? We could not have drained rivers, cut great holes in the ground, polluted the air, obliterated forests and built cities without green corridors if we recognized connection to all energy, to country.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs

Barbara Nanshe © 2023.

https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/