Handshake 3: Reflect

Overview

Consider a necklace made out of a plastic yellow scrubbing brush (the sort that'd be great for giving the shower a good going-over) and a piece of orange string. Immediately the modern art wail of 'But I could've done that' starts to sound. And perhaps it's true, you could've done it — but would you have thought to?

As well as functioning as wearable jewellery, the pieces in a new show at The Dowse are working double time as adornments that encourage us to reflect on the role jewellery plays in our lives, both for the wearer and the beholder. Handshake 3: Reflect is the third exhibition from the Handshake project, which sets up emerging jewellery artists with a chosen mentor to make work for a series of shows.

This exhibition has its own blog where you can find out more about the twelve artists in the show, their chosen mentor and the ideas and thinking that have gone into producing their jewellery. Also currently on show at The Dowse is a documentary photography exhibition, a collection of drawings from the museum's archive and there's a brand new gallery café for your reflective post-art-viewing glass of something.

Image: The Dowse and Mark Tantrum