In March, I met Francis on the day her survey exhibition Jealous Saboteurs opened in Christchurch. Busy times however that didn’t stop her from making a space in her day to meet up, share work, give feedback, talk about next steps and have tea from a great set of pottery.
Moving through her exhibition made me think about knowledge and where it is stored in our bodies. The term is referred to as embodied knowledge and it belongs in our hands, heart, gut, head, even in our feet. I think when you work in this way a gestural and intuitive object is formed. That’s what I see when I look at Francis Upritchard’s work. An object worked by hand, that reveals something of her embodied knowledge and relationship to the world. And if contemporary jewellery is about how objects relate to the body, surely this way of working offers some insightful possibilities to consider?
