Jamie Fergus

About...

Name

Jamie Fergus

A bit about

Minumental sculpture and adornment.

Jamie’s work is distinguished by its carefully considered combinations of traditional and unexpected materials, cunning technical detail and meticulous hand-finishing. It often blurs the line between jewellery and sculpture, running the gamut of styles from quietly elegant carvings in jade and delicately engraved and inlaid metal sword-fittings, through to striking and slyly humorous sculptural collaborations with damasus steel-smith, Scott Sanz. Tactile and alluring, the work invites intimacy:

“… for me the best pieces are those that - beyond their immediate impact - have something in them that tugs at the corners of the mind… a niggling suspicion that you just missed something almost breaking the surface. Pieces that hint at older, more elemental states and darker, more internal spaces. Pieces that urge you to explore, to touch, to follow the half-heard voices with your mind as you trace its lines with your fingers. To turn it over in your hands and catch just a glimpse – like a fish in dark water - of the larger, stranger puzzle that exists in someone else’s imagination.”

Originally from Dunedin, New Zealand, Jamie began studies in jewellery and metalworking at the Sydney Institute Design Centre in 1995. On graduation he spent a further 6 years at the Design Centre as technician and tutor while also gaining experience working with other jewellers and private jewellery schools. First exposed to South Australian jade through NSW lapidary club “rock festivals” in the late 90’s; Jamie’s initial efforts in stone led eventually to him being drawn home to New Zealand to study Hard Stone Carving in Greymouth on the South Island’s west coast. He is now based close to the mighty Heathcoate River in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he has been adopted by a precocious cat and a 90-year-old walnut tree.

Having attended CollaboratioNZ events at MacGregors Bay near Whangarei in 2005 and 2011 [where 80-plus artists in are unleashed on each other for a week of intensive sharing, learning and co-creation], Jamie is now an avid supporter of the collaborative process in the arts. In July 2012, at the invitation of the Saskatoon Crafts Council, he will be joining 100 other committed artists from around the world at CollaboratioNZ’s Canadian sister-event - the prestigious EMMA “Unplugged” near Saskatchewan. On his return he hopes to be able to share his experiences and help further promote the benefits of collaborative creativity in both Christchurch and the greater South Island region.

Big Idea

Every one of us has a vision of the world which, rightly or wrongly, we believe we share with everyone else. Parallel to this world are our own private visions of other worlds: ideals, alternatives, fantasies, daydreams, heavens... hells. By rearranging the raw materials of our common environment - whether assembling individual components or fleshing shapes out from a solid mass - these imagined worlds are drawn into the "real" world, transforming it forever. As makers, we have the power to reinforce the world as it is - celebrating the beauty we see around us, holding back the chaos, refining and preserving that which already exists. As makers we can challenge what we see - opposing, extending, developing, dismantling, recycling; calling into being those things that we feel SHOULD be. As makers, mostly we're flailing around just trying to get the damn thing to hang together. But no act of creation should be dismissed lightly, as it is through these that we tune the collective picture of the world to our own personal channel.

Contact Details

Physical Address

 

Postal Address

c/o 60 Riley Cresent

Woolston, Christchurch

New Zealand

Phone

021 0229 4458

My work is now showing at

Form Gallery [Christchurch]

History

Member for

7 years 8 weeks

Connected With

Jewellery

Metal

Object Art

Sculpture

Wearable Art

Christchurch

Canterbury