Fingers (gallery)

Fingers is a contemporary jewellery gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. Fingers shows and sells the work primarily of New Zealand jewellers, but also of international jewellers, mostly from Australia and Europe.[1]

Established in 1974, Fingers is the longest running institution of its type in New Zealand, and one of the longest running contemporary jewellery spaces in the world.<ref name = 'SkinnerMcCahon>Skinner, Damian; McCahon-Jones, Finn (2014). Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Bateman. p. 9. ISBN 9781869538620.</ref> It began when jeweller Alan Preston, after a stint as a Guest Artist at Brown's Mill Market, New Zealand’s first craft co-operative,approached jewellers Ruth Baird, Roy Mason, Margaret Philips and Michael Ayling to open a jewellery shop on Auckland's Lorne Street.[2] The name 'Fingers' was chosen because all the jewellers were at the time making rings.<ref name = 'SkinnerMcCahon|pages=5/>

The aim of the cooperative in setting Fingers up was to 'sell directly to the public, to exchange techniques and ideas, and to provide a focal point for creative jewellery in New Zealand.' [3] Each member of the cooperative spent one day of the week minding the shop, and the rest working independently on their jewellery.[4] In its early years Fingers had a strong focus on silversmithing and the group also set up a silversmithing school called Lapis Lazuli.[4]

Important early exhibitions included 'Guaranteed Trash' (1978), which responded to the punk aesthetic, the Bone show (1981), where 24 jewellers contributed pieces made from bone, and 'Paua Dreams' (1981) featuring the six Fingers members and eight invited jewellers, with the aim of elevating paua shell back up from its use in mass-produced souvenirs for the tourist trade.[2][5]

By the mid 1980s New Zealand galleries and museums were starting to buy pieces of jewellery from Fingers. A 1984 article in the New Zealand Listener Jacqueline Amoamo notes

"In a review of 'Paua Dreams' I suggested it was time that museums and art galleries started collections of New Zealand craft jewellery. Someone at the Auckland Museum must have taken the hint because within a few minutes of the opening of the latest Fingers exhibition 'Souvenirs' a representative had bought a delicate paua necklace-and-earrings set by Ruth Baird and a spectacular silver pendant inlaid with paua and enamel by guest exhibitor Elena Gee - at $600 the most expensive piece on show. The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt is one public gallery that does have a permanent collection of jewellery, including work by Fingers people and Auckland stone carver John Edgar."[6]

Fingers moved to its current premises on Kitchener Street in 1987, opposite the Auckland Art Gallery.[2] New freestanding glass-sided cabinets and a counter designed by Humphrey Ikin suggested ‘an expanded ambition as a gallery rather than a shop‘.[2] In a move to reassure jewellers and customers that it remained committed to accessibly-priced jewellery, Fingers staged the group exhibition '$100 Under' in 1988.[7]

List of Fingers members

References

  1. ↑ Skinner, Damian (20 September 2012). "Fingers, Auckland, New Zealand". Art Jewelry Forum. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Fingers gallery is celebrating 40 years of contemporary jewellery". NZHerald.co.nz. APN New Zealand Limited. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "Fingers - a co-op jewellers' shop". City News. 11 December 1974.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cape, Peter (1980). Please touch : a survey of the three-dimensional arts in New Zealand. Auckland: Collins. p. 69. ISBN 0002169576. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ Amoamo, Jacqueline (17 November 1984). "Co-operative fingers". New Zealand Listener: 57.
  7. ↑

Further sources

Moyra Elliott, 'Talking Shop: Fingers', Object Magazine, issue 46, 2005.http://www.object.com.au/ Alan Preston interview on 'Nine to Noon', Radio New Zealand National, 23 December 2014. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/20162139/fingers-gallery,-celebrating-40-years-in-operation