Interview with Djurdjica Kesic.

Djurdjica with an armful of belongings – pillowcase, lamp, picture frames, jewellery box {above} and wearing 12 necklaces from her ‘Nomad’ collection {below}. Photography by Z.Kesic.

Ok, so you may have noticed that it’s Wednesday today, yet I am bringing you an interview rather then Husband’s photography assignment. I know, I know – I’m bad and I’m breaking my own rules. Oh well, rules are there to be broken. Besides, I wanted to let you know about an exhibition opening some of you might want to attend. So really, I’m breaking my own rules for you guys. How lovely of me… Yes, fine, you can thank me later.

I haven’t met Djurdjica Kesic in person, but I feel as though her and I have quite a bit in common. Perhaps it is the fact that Djurdjica immigrated to Australia from former Yugoslavia in 1991 {I came here in late 1994}, or the fact that she studied Interior Design at RMIT {I studied Interior Architecture at UNSW}. But it feels like our similarities run even deeper than that – I’ve identified myself with some of her answers to my questions, the way she views and approaches her work.

Djurdjica creates wearable pieces by deconstructing, transforming and reshaping old objects. One of her recent collections, ‘Transitions’, was about creating jewellery from an antique chair. Her latest collection, titled ‘Nomad’, is a series of wearable works created from an armful of preloved belongings pictured in the first photo. Djurdjica “develops her ongoing interest in home, place and migration. For Kesic, the house becomes a symbol of something that evokes a sense of place and stability. More specifically these ideas are explored in relation to the migrant experience that is in many ways shaped by transition and movement. The two, house and migration, appear to be in a dichotomy, of something fixed and something in motion.”

‘Nomad’ is Djurdjica’s first solo Sydney show and I am absolutely thrilled to be able to support her. Her exhibition opens tomorrow night at Metalab for the rest of this month. Metalabis a very special artist studio and gallery in Surry Hills. It was established in 2004 with the intention to provide a platform that inspires innovation and creates opportunities for Australian designers and makers. I recently visited their beautiful space and met the lovely people that work there. I was so impressed with what they do that I simply have no choice but to bring you a whole feature dedicated to Metalab in the coming weeks. So stay tuned – I think you are going to like it.

Thank you Metalab, for putting me in touch with Djurdjica. And thank you Djurdjica for your time and for being a part of yellowtrace.

Opening Night – Thursday 4th March 6-8pm
Exhibition 5 – 25th March 2010
Metalab | 10B Fitzroy Place, Surry Hills
p: +61 2 8354 1398 | e: [email protected]

x dana

Djurdjica’s ‘Nomad’ neckpieces made by using materials such as a reclaimed timber lamp, reclaimed jewellery box, timber veneer, oxidised sterling silver & linen thread.

Tell me a little bit about your background – you’ve completed a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design at RMIT in 1999. What made you decide to pursue jewellery design, and what path lead you to where you are today?

It has taken me many years to find my creative voice and medium, but when I look back I do recognise that each creative field that I’ve ventured in, in one way or another, has informed where I am today and what I do today. But in short, my creative life spans from dance to interior design to jewellery making.

During my education at Interior Design at RMIT, there was a great emphasis on the relationship between the body and space and many projects dealt with creating spaces/architecture closer to the scale of the body. As a ‘once upon a time’ dancer, these explorations really struck a chord with me and ultimately, later, doing research into this area I started discovering amazing jewellery artists.

However, it was in jewellery that I’ve found a perfect language and scale for me. I took a plunge and in 2006 enrolled in an Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology and Metalsmithing (Jewellery) at the Box Hill Institute in Melbourne, where I encountered wonderful and dedicated teachers that still inspire me to this day.

Jewellery making is where I feel most at home with creatively. It is where it all falls into place for me.

More of Djurdjica’s ‘Nomad’ neckpieces – materials as before.

Can you describe what you are seeking to portray in your work? What is fundamental to your practice – your philosophy and your design process?

I try to be honest with my work. Ultimately what guides me is the idea and not the aesthetics of the piece. I believe that the work acquires its own aesthetic in the process, so I don’t focus on it as such.

I can try to describe my process as two phases. The initial one of gathering: researching, sketching, writing, photographing, collecting – whatever the work requires. And the second one when I start exploring through making and creating final pieces – this is a phase when I start “peeling” away and looking for the essence of the piece.

Some of the themes that seem to recur in my work are about home, migranthood, movement, change, but I’m also very drawn to discovering and highlighting the preciousness in the everyday and the often forgotten and overlooked.

More of Djurdjica’s ‘Nomad’ neckpieces – materials as before.

You latest body of work is titled “Nomad”, created from an armful of your personal belongings. Can you tell me a little bit about this collection? Also, how has your life experience {i.e. immigrating to Australia at a young age} influenced this collection and your other work in general?

For years now I’ve been interested in the idea of domestic objects and the ideas behind what is home to a migrant. The “Nomad” series came about thinking of migration as a journey and what one carries along.

I guess, the starting point for me in this series, was the image of a person holding domestic objects that they can carry in their arms alone, in order to take it to another destination and, maybe attempt to set up home elsewhere.

However, an aspect that I wanted to explore through this work wasn’t about faithfully recreating home in a new destination, but embracing how the idea of home for a migrant changes in that process.

That is why I chose to explore these objects in different ways, changing them, giving them new modes of belonging and a new site: the body. Consequently, by becoming jewellery, these belongings become more portable, nomadic, which I really like.

I’ve actually collected these belongings for the project and only one of the belongings is mine – it is a pillowcase I was given a long time ago by my grandmother, of which half of it I’ve reworked into a necklace and the other half I’ve kept.

I’ve been in Australia for almost 20 years. I arrived in 1991 for a holiday and a visit to relatives. During that time, things in my country of origin took a bad turn, so I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to stay.

Of course, my own experience as a migrant makes way into my work and I embrace it. Living inbetween cultures, customs, languages, with all the good and the bad that it brings is quite exciting to me. So I don’t shy away from it when it emerges in my work, I allow it to happen and explore it.

Rings from Djurdjica’s ‘Transformations’ collection, made by using oxidised sterling silver, 18K gold and precious stones.

What does a typical day involve for you? How do you work – can you give us an insight into your process?

My studio is at home and although initially I thought of sharing a studio with other people, I came to really enjoy this set up. At this stage, when I’m making I like being one-on-one with my work.

A typical day depends on what’s on and what stage of the process I’m in. If I am preparing for an exhibition or a new production series, in the early stages of the process it’s all about (as I’ve mentioned earlier) research, sketching, writing, photographing, collecting. The following stages are about exploring these through making and making final pieces – this means straightforward bench based work from morning to night. I enjoy and find important each phase of the process.

Creative people often find it really difficult to network and market themselves – how do you approach this side of your work? Do you make a point of actively seeking out publications you would like to be featured in/ or introducing yourself to the right kind of people that can help you?

I have to admit personally I do very little to market my work actively. I have a website and that is about it. However, I have received a good response through it and made contacts with people just stumbling across it.

Also the galleries I work with, Pieces of Eight Gallery in Melbourne and Metalab Gallery in Sydney, do an amazing job in promoting my work. I am so very grateful to be working with such dedicated and fine professionals.

I am contemplating starting a blog in conjunction with my website but, again, I wasn’t thinking of gearing it towards marketing as such but to be a place where I can record my process, things that inspire me, etc. Would that bring my work more exposure, I am not sure.

However, I think artists and designers today have an amazing facility in the Internet. Suddenly, the potential for audience is worldwide, so having some presence on the web is a good way to go.

What advice do you have for young designers wanting to follow in your footsteps? What was one of your biggest lessons learned since setting up your practice?

To persist and to try to remain honest in face of what they are creating, to seek an authentic voice in what they are doing and not be overwhelmed by trends.

Since setting up my practice, each experience was (and still is) an important lesson. You get some right, you get some wrong but eventually with experience you learn and gain more clarity on each aspect of the practice, both creative and business side. I suppose, I would suggest both patience and persistence as key ingredients when setting up a practice.

Djurdjica’s earlier work ‘Transitions’ series, where the starting point for a project was a reclaimed chair re-emerging as a series of jewellery pieces. Idea of transience occurs on a number of levels – from form, function and context. The final transition takes place where the chair which once housed the body, ended up being “housed” by the body itself.

Where do you turn for creative inspiration – books, travel, websites/ blogs etc?

Oh yes, to all of the above!

I’ve just finished a book that completely moved me. It is by Muriel Barbery titled The Elegance of the Hedgehog. It is the atmosphere of the work that I find so inspiring and that stays with me. This influences me (and what I do) a lot. Also, I rarely work without the music on. Lately I have on loop Eilen Jewell, Sarah Blasko, Savina Yannatou, Zulya Kamalova, Kesang Marstrand.

What other designers, artists, creative people, or peers do you admire?

Works by artists Do Ho Suh, Hossein Valamanesh, Rosslynd Piggot, Mona Hatoum, Louise Bourgeois, Susan Collis, strike a chord with me every time. Work by my peers and local jewellers like my friend (and also an ex-Interior Designer!) Tessa Blazey, all of the amazing jewellers at the Pieces of Eight workshop lead by Melanie Katsalidis, stunning work by Mari Funaki, Kiko Gianocca, Otto Kunzli, Henriette Schuster… way too many to mention them all and I’m discovering more and more every day.

What are you most proud of professionally?

I’m not sure, I don’t seem to look at it that way. I just do what I do and try to focus on what’s at hand. I think it is still a little bit early for me to reflect on that. I’m still looking at what’s ahead and also enjoying where I am at the moment.

What are you working on at the moment?

Further developing my production range ‘transformations’ and brewing a new project.

What’s next – can you share with us your vision and some of your goals?

Creating specific goals has rarely worked for me. I just have a sense, a direction in which I am going. I find that this allows me to be open to whatever comes. Generally, whenever I am ending a project I have already started on a new one (or sometimes on several). And even if one project doesn’t eventuate it helps me to get to, hone the way to the next one.

Djurdjica’s inspiration for ‘Fragments’ series was about capturing fragments in time and space – sterling sliver and 18k gold.

Let’s Get Personal.

Apart from your work, what other interests or hobbies do you have?

Travel of all kinds: actual travel but also virtual travel through books and Internet.

I’m also slowly discovering the world of quilt making. The symbolism and history behind it is really beautiful to me.

I’ve recently (finally!) finished a small quilt and discovered that I really enjoyed working with fabric. Soon I’ll be attempting a queen size one. I’m looking forward to getting lost in meters of fabric.

What are some of your favorite local galleries and shops {music, fashion, books, accessories, furniture vintage, other bits and pieces}?

In Melbourne, where I live: Pieces of Eight Gallery and many other contemporary jewellery galleries, Craft Victoria, Paperback bookstore on Bourke Street, Camberwell Sunday flea Market, Mediterranean Supermarket in Sydney Road – the smell and taste of their freshly baked ciabatta is irresistible. Industria for great vintage finds in Gertrude Street, Lupa for Melbourne made fashion in Northcote.

Your favourite cafes/ restaurants/ bars?

Locally, around the corner of where I live: Di Bella Coffee in North Melbourne for a great breakfast coffee. Claypots in Gertrude Street for the freshest, delicious seafood.

What is your most treasured belonging?

Family photographs.

Do you have a nickname?

George, DJ…

It’s not very cool, but I really like…

At the moment: pineapple on pizza.

Your favourite joke?

Sorry, I’m going to have to pass on this one! I’m disastrous at telling jokes. But I love when other people tell me, can you tell me one?

Ok, this one is for you Djurdjica – one of my all time favourite jokes. Warning – it’s extremely lame, so read on at your own risk!

A man goes to the zoo… There was only one dog there… It was a shit-zu.

‘Malmsbury’ series is a response to a small town located in Victoria – the jewellery pieces echo the local winter atmosphere and acknowledge the presence of the drought. The series is developed by using twigs and small branches as a main material, naturally discarded from trees found on the ground in the Malmsbury Botanic Gardens.

This ‘Pebbles’ ring series reflects Djurdjica’s interest in exploring the notion of preciousness within the seemingly non-valuable. Genius.

All images courtesy of Djurdjica Kesic.