UNDERTONE

‘Liv Boyle is jeweller as archaeologist. She rescues debris dumped by the sea on the sinuous edges of beaches…

…all bits of scrap – plastic oddments, driftwood, rubber gasket, fishing braid, metal parts – initially accumulated on the tidelines where two currents in the ocean converge.

With her jeweller’s eye for detail, she sorts her collection into typologies, juxtaposing material history with shape, colour and size. And in due course, she transforms these waste materials into jewellery.

In the spirit of her New Zealand jewellery heritage, Liv is naturally curious about the providence of materials. She tracks substance history, cultural reference and nostalgic associations in tandem with her own experiences to tease out the meaning within her found objects.

Liv is deeply concerned with the effects of our material waste upon the ocean ecosystem. In Tide Line she unpicks the nuance of a material, evolving its underlying quality into familiar jewellery with a quiet undertone of protest. Tumeke (too much) is an extravagant necklace made with 500 grams of plastic nurdles, the same micro plastics fish swallow, tied together with brightly coloured silk threads. Mako are plastic tooth-like ear pendants. Fly pins reference fishing lures; Blue Straw is a driftwood necklace; Weed becomes a mess of microfilament braid.

Liv is playing with ambiguity and interpretation as a way of finding her own language, her own poetic voice’

- Susan Cohn

Undertone explored notions of time and impermanence through the intimate nature of jewellery and object.

Undertone presented investigations into the defining nature of the artists studio practice and how those disciplines intersect.

As we grapple with evidence of the Anthropocene era, Mako could be seen as mourning jewellery for the Oceans, or a placard for its conservation. Honouring the tradition of shark tooth ear pendants cherished by Maori, these earrings are made from shards of plastic washed-up on beaches across

Australia and New Zealand. Embellished with gold, everyday waste is transformed into its antithesis, highlighting our material addiction to plastic and the threat it poses to marine ecosystems globally.

In Remnants, natural compositions of debris observed on shore; tangles of twigs, seaweed and abandoned fishing line are reimagined in precious metals. Hand forged lengths of silver and gold become sticks or Koru, coiled together with simple tension. The metal’s skin is weathered by blows of the hammer and oxidization.

Surface textures also crafted in nature by the incessant pounding of waves, photo-degradation, and corrosive sea salt. Assemblages of tidal deposits, details and fragments, Remnants evoke those quiet moments where your focus settles on a small patch of sand.

Inspired by the hobbyist’s intricate art of fly-tying and the colourful mimicry of fishing lures, the Artist fray’s off-cuts from botanically dyed silks, unravels knots of discarded fishing braid, and gathers feathers that fall in her path,

reworking these drifting traces of habitation into sprightly insect-like pins. Walking, observing, and collecting discreet materials from the environment, be it urban, coastal or rural, is integral to the artists practice.

For this piece Liv used a driftwood reed found on the shores of Lake Taupo, New Zealand, painted with gouache in cerulean blue. To honour and emphasise the fragile nature of the reed, a fracture incurred during travel is

repaired with gold foil (in the spirit of Kintsugi). The adjustable toggle is made with silk, silver and a fragment of marine plastic collected at Kohimaramara Beach, Auckland, New Zealand.