"Lineage: 130 Years of Bosshard Jewellery" opens this weekend at Eastern Southland Gallery, and Kobi Bosshard will speak tomorrow.
The show features drawings, photographs and memorabilia chronicling his family’s jewellery-making history, going back 130 years.
It also shows Bosshard’s avant-garde pieces made after he migrated to New Zealand in the early 1960s.
Bosshard’s grandfather Jakob opened his first jeweller’s shop in Uster, Switzerland in 1895.
His son Heinrich, Bosshard’s father, took over the business in 1930 and Bosshard, now in his 80s, carried on the family tradition by training as a goldsmith.
However, he escaped tradition by moving to New Zealand in 1961 and establishing a pared-back, contemporary practice.
He and Dunedin jeweller and sculptor Stephen Mulqueen opened workshop and gallery Fluxus in 1983 dedicated to the subversion of their shared craft.
Bosshard’s work is known for its unfussy use of precious metals.
The jeweller has an interest in the relationship between the items and their wearer and explores that in his work.
He will discuss his philosophies tomorrow at 2pm, in conversation with Te Papa decorative art and design curator Justine Olsen.
Works by Bosshard’s Swiss forebears also feature in the exhibition.
