Nellie Peoples is a designer-maker working in the field of jewellery and small objects. In 2015, she moved her life to Brisbane for love. She found her feet in her new city by walking the streets. As she settled into life here, Nellie embraced Brisbane’s topography, immersed herself in the city and embarked on a journey of discovery. With her background in architecture and jewellery making, Nellie has an eye for forms both macro and micro, and her fresh perspective on our River City meant she saw the detail a new – colours, pattern, shapes and lines that make Brisbane.
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The Making Place, Marking Space exhibition is a result of Nellie’s explorations in Brisbane. It is a collection of contemporary jewellery that express the colour of the Jacaranda and Poinciana trees; the patterns created on the footpaths; the dappled light across the buildings of the city; the shapes of facades, the lines of streets and cityscapes.
On one level, Making Place, Marking Space is for those who live in and love Brisbane; those of us recognize the particular places and details. In the same breath, the exhibition invites the new gaze of travelers and tourists; of newcomers like Nellie once was. She asks them to see the elements that make our city – that make our place; that continue to mark her space.
"Over the last 12 months I have been tracking these journeys. I have been to the city many times but I only tracked the walks on my mud map when I went specifically to discover more about Brisbane."
As part of getting to know her new home Nellie explored the CBD and surrounding suburbs. She sought out the less-travelled side-alleys and back streets. She also viewed the city from different angles exploring the spaces between buildings.
Throughout this exploration, Nellie made meticulous entries in her visual diaries, capturing her physical and emotional connections to the city. She used sketches, studies of colour, shape and pattern, mud maps and photographic images. Through deliberate and active observation, she sought to understand Brisbane through its colour, pattern, shape and line, on both a small and large scale. These observations, as captured in her visual diaries, formed the basis of the Making Place, Marking Space exhibition collection.
" From my exploration photographs I simplified the colour palette into major hues in the photo. With these colours I began to build up a idea about the colours of the city."
One focus of the exhibition is the colour palette of Brisbane. Each time Nellie explored the city the colours would be different depending on the time of day, if there were blue skies or a gentle summer rain: the colours of Brisbane are so variable, yet so vibrant. She took photos of the city to try and capture these colours - which she names “Bristones”. These photos ranged from the macro of streetscapes to the micro details of footpaths, but she particularly loved the building facades of the skyscrapers in the city.
Another line of enquiry for the Making Place, Marking Space exhibition was pattern. Nellie took great joy on her explorations in discovering and isolating certain shapes found across the city. One trend that emerged from her photographs were the patterns created by windows on high-rise buildings. She loved the repeated forms that appeared when you zoomed in tightly on a building.
One of the early studies Nellie undertook was drawing the patterns of windows on high rises in the CBD. The windows that caught her eye were simplified: they were broken down into single elements and block colours. Nellie discovered that the window itself was not an overly exciting form, but elevating the elements created a dynamic pattern. These drawn designs focussed on the micro elements which when combined became greater than the sum of its parts.
Utility Series, 2020, copper, brass, silk (pendant)
Nellie had three approaches when it came to creating the Utility Series. The first approach used simplified versions of her drawn designs, which were chemically etched onto copper blanks. The process involved painting the copper blanks with bitumen. Nellie then used a pen-like tool to scratch the pattern onto the surface so that copper lines are revealed. She put the blanks into a chemical bath at a exact temperature and for a precise amount of time. The chemical slowly eats away at the copper lines and while the bitumen protects the rest of the copper blank. Once the bitumen is cleaned away the pattern is revealed.
The second approach to examining the patterns that make up Brisbane was at the micro level. Here she focussed on the utility and manhole covers that are sprinkled across pavements of the city. Each cover was individual whether that was because of the pattern, its colour, or how its surface was worn in subtly different ways.
Nellie drew inspiration from these patterns to create a series of copper blanks that were imprinted by steel mesh. As the copper is softer than the steel it takes on the pattern of the mesh. The slight variations in the steel grid and the pressure that was placed on the steel mesh and the copper gave the blank subtle differences, just like the utility covers she observed on her explorations.
The third approach to creating the Utility Series was a form study of the manhole covers with no pattern present. These blanks were made from brass.
All of the pendants in this collection have been designed to develop a patina overtime to further connect the piece to the original utility cover inspiration. As the pendants are worn and exposed to the elements the colour of the copper and brass will deepen. The Utility Series collection were presented in a linear display: almost as if you would see them in the Queens Street Mall.
When Nellie began exploring the streets on the edge of Brisbane‘s CBD, the one thing that struck her were the silhouettes of the buildings in the morning sun. Brisbane’s inner city suburbs, from New Farm to West End, have so much charm and character through their original buildings.
During her explorations Nellie would sit on the curb or street bench and sketch these buildings. This action was a delightful throw back to Nellie's time studying architecture. She joyfully dusted off those old skills to create small building studies. The sketches helped her see their shape in a different way compared to walking and taking photographs.
Neighbourhood Series, 2020, brass, acrylic paint, silk (pendant)
These buildings and their facades inspired the Neighbourhood series. The brass pendants are a series of shape studies, cut to proportion to capture various building’s elevations. The silhouettes were hand cut and painted in selected Bristones colours that speak to the suburb or street where the building is located. Nellie displayed the pendants in a row to give the neighbourhood of pendants a street to sit on.
Elevation Series, 2019, copper, acrylic paint, silk (pendant)
For the Elevation Series Nellie used similar exploration paths as the Neighbourhood Series. However, In this collection, she incorporated more detail of the area and street into the final pieces. On location, Nellie drew the streetscapes directly onto the building facade shapes. Once the sketches were complete she returned to the studio and chemically etched the facades. Finally, on the back of the piece she drew and etched the buildings location in relation to the Brisbane River. This way the shape of the pendant, as well as the back and the front of the piece, came together to tell the story of the original building and its place within Brisbane.
Window Series, 2020, sterling silver (pendant and chain)
The last series in the exhibition is the Window series. After drawing through out the making and designing process Nellie wanted to incorporate the lines of Brisbane into wearable objects. Again, harking back to her architectural studies, the Window series uses the silhouettes of the city and simplified the cityscape down to its basic lines. She built up the drawing line by line, soldering them together very slowly and steadily so she did not damage the sometimes fragile wire. What Nellie enjoys most about this series, is that these pieces can be viewed as either looking out a window onto the city or a reflection of the city in a window – the perspective is yours to choose.
"Through the Marking Place, Marking Space exhibition I have had the privilege of being able to share the process of making my place in Brisbane. With the crisscross traces of each journey I discovered something I had not noticed before. I hope this exhibition inspires others to rediscover where they live.” - Nellie Peoples, 2020
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Credits:
Nellie Peoples