Made to Break by Kathryn Wardill

14 to 22 September 2024

https://radiantpavilion.com.au/listing/made-to-break

Each day, wardill.com will host a new development in the series, Made to Break.

A series of wearable jewellery objects, handmade from glass and silver expand my 30—year research investigation into unique ways to combine two materials. The objects created in concept and design explore breaking, from a number of perspectives, including physically and conceptually.

Glass is a material known for breaking. This inherent concept forms the basis for this series of handmade jewellery objects which are made to be worn and made to break. The work will be created, documented, worn, and documented each day of 2024 Radiant Pavilion and shared via the artist’s self—published website.

The works exploit the physical properties of glass as an expressive medium, pulled into delicate threads, manipulated to create extreme fragility, a metaphor for moments in life.

As the biggest biennial of its kind in the southern hemisphere, Radiant Pavilion brings a focus to the important contribution that contemporary jewellery and object practice makes to the creative and cultural sector. It is a celebration of diversity—in makers, in methods, in themes, and in materials.

Radiant Pavilion 2024

This year’s program brings together more than 100 makers from Australia and internationally who have contributed to 60+ events in and around Naarm/Melbourne, which is, itself, home to a thriving and generous community of artists, galleries and studios.

The Radiant Pavilion 2024 program elements include First Peoples and Indigenous storytelling, climate change, the environment, technology, health, connection and engagement; and are as varied as the makers themselves and the materials they have employed. The thread that runs through all events is the ability for contemporary jewellery and object practice to encourage reflection and stimulate discussion and debate on the world in which we live.

Accompanying workshops, talks and panels also provide the opportunity for discussion, interaction, sharing and the on-going development of a community of practice.

This year is the fifth iteration of Radiant Pavilion, the first in person since 2019, and reflects both the maturity of the Biennial and the ongoing desire for real sensory engagement with objects, people and ideas.