Riffing off Brown Eyes Blue is the first in a series of three 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. 

Sofia Tekela-Smith first exhibited Brown Eyes Blue in 2004. Featuring large-scale photographs alongside a series of pearl shell neckpieces, this series used photography as a means to contextualise and display jewellery.

For Objectspace, Tekela-Smith revisits two of the photographs that featured in Brown Eyes Blue, creating new works that merges image and object. The original photographic prints are embellished with thread and pearls.

This development offers new interpretations of  these now iconic images, as Tekela-Smith continues her deft testing of the ways adornment can be exhibited and experienced. 

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Sofia Tekela-Smith is a maker of jewellery and objects of body adornment. Using materials that reclaim and strengthen cultural ties to her Rotuman heritage, she creates work that reflects and communicates a visual language of harmony, beauty, strength and spirit.

Her work is held in the permanent collections of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.