Lisa Walker, Fischli and Weiss Bracelet, 2018, Shoes
Lisa Walker, Fischli and Weiss Bracelet, 2018, Shoes

Lisa Walker, Fischli and Weiss Bracelet, 2018, Shoes
Lisa Walker, pendant 2016 (thanks Meatwreck), old phone, Iphone
Lisa Walker, pendant, plastic, laquer, thread, 2018
Lisa Walker, pendant (thanks Anna Maiolino), wood, laquer, thread, 2018

 

Lisa Walker’s first exhibition in Ra Gallery took place in 2002. It was titled Haberdashery. Coming from New Zealand, she used local haberdashery shops as inspiration for her huge graduation collection of jewellery pieces at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunsten in Munich. She usually works with cheap, kitschy materials. In doing so she hardly uses traditional goldsmith’s techniques, but often (visibly) glues her jewellery pieces together. Her presentation at Ra in the KunstRai 2005 was aptly titled: Glued, Bashed, Sewed, Squashed, Chucked, Painted, Licked. At the KunstRai 2016 one could even hear Ra’s gallery owner say about her work: ‘– and it’s not very beautifully made’. This didn’t stop people from buying. In recent years she has been using found and pre-used materials with a (personal) history, like leftover stuff from Karl’s studio or toys from the children. One step beyond, and more controversial, Lisa is now taking pictures of existing art works from the internet to turn them, almost literally, into jewellery pieces, like she did in the Fischli and Weiss Bracelet, Shoes. She is playing with the concepts of influencing and copying and doesn’t shun the ensuing debate. In het own words: ‘I learned a long time ago that you don’t have to find the answers, it’s enough for the works to keep asking the questions.’Lisa Walker’s newest work is about the ‘unrelenting abundance’ of the modern lifestyle.