JamFactory ICON 2024 Julie Blyfield: Chasing a Passion

JamFactory’s ICON series celebrates the achievements of South Australia’s most influential visual artists working in craft-based media. Julie Blyfield is a jeweller and metalsmith whose ever-evolving practice is inspired by her research into botanical specimens, historical silver collections and the rich diversity of the Australian landscape. Predominantly working in silver and copper, Blyfield interprets botanical motifs using the traditional metalsmithing techniques of chasing and repoussé to create intricately patterned jewellery and objects.

JamFactory ICON Julie Blyfield: Chasing a Passion is inspired by Blyfield’s experiences of the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest in far-north Queensland. In developing work for this exhibition, Blyfield has drawn on the marine collections of the South Australian Museum as well as resources she collected during her visit. Serving as a poetic metaphor for life and loss in a time of increasing environmental peril due to climate change, Blyfield’s masterful renderings immortalise the natural beauty of vulnerable species of delicate corals and threatened ancient forests.

 Exhibitor: Julie Blyfield

JamFactory Junior Jewellers

JamFactory at Seppeltsfield
until 2 March 2025

Design your own jewellery as part of our JamFactory ICON 2024
Julie Blyfield: Chasing a Passion exhibition!

Grab an activity book and use the stamps and drawing materials provided to design your own jewellery inspired by the work of Julie Blyfield and the things you have seen and experienced in her exhibition, Chasing a Passion.

Julie Blyfield, Corallium objects #4–5 2024, sterling silver, metal stand, largest: 60 x 235 x 160 mm, photographer: Grant Hancock

Vipoo Srivilasa: re/JOY

Australian Design Centre (ADC) is delighted to present re/JOY, a major exhibition by Thai-born Australian artist Vipoo Srivilasa. re/JOY honours and celebrates the multi-layered personal migration stories of people from all over the world who, like Vipoo, have made Australia their home.

 In 2023, the award-winning ceramic artist issued a public call-out for donations of broken ceramic objects that held significant meaning for their owners, and for their stories explaining why. From the responses Vipoo chose seven pieces and stories that resonated with him to create his striking new 1.5-metre-tall ceramic sculptures. These included a teapot made in Korea, a terracotta tile from India, and a clay sculpture from Mexico, all damaged in some way yet still precious. Vipoo has also made an eighth sculpture referencing his own experiences moving from Thailand to Australia, based around a button from his grandfather that holds strong family connections.

re/JOY is a collaborative, community-driven project designed to engage with overseas-born Australians. It examines the emotional connection we have with everyday objects and their role in our lives through migration experiences and memories. It also draws out the complex feelings associated with overseas relocation, the difficult process of gaining Australian permanent residency, and the many meanings of home.

Vipoo Srivilasa, Dance of Dreams. Photo Simon Strong