Mid-Sentence is the second in a series of short-run exhibitions in our Cemac Foyer. Three practitioners were invited to exhibit an existing body of work or work-in-progress, offering a glimpse into diverse jewellery practices in Aotearoa. 

In Mid-Sentence, Jasmine Te Hira presents two bodies of work created during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. These works, shown here as test drawings, consider her ongoing research into taonga as ‘shadow sites’ – objects that have the capability to be embedded with hidden, private histories.

Te Hira has been considering the ability of taonga to carry kōrero that has long been dormant and the possiblity taonga has to create space for kaupapa to be reconsidered or seen. 

These works reflect her ongoing research, probing our understanding of the power of personal adornment and the potential of contemporary taonga to support the retelling of histories and the revoicing of language that may be lost or fractured.

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Jasmine Te Hira (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Atiu, England) is an artist, arts educator and community partnership coordinator from Aotearoa New Zealand. Her current Masters project is based at Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka, where she graduated as Senior Scholar from her undergraduate degree in Design and Visual Arts (2016). Jasmine has forged a practice that articulates concepts relating to time, memory and perception through the boundaries of object, video and constructed space.