After losing its gallery space in the February earthquakes, Christchurch’s The National is bringing its work to the public in a different way.

Its latest initiative, Host A Brooch, repurposes objects from around the city and takes them to the streets.

Contemporary jeweller Jacqui Chan has created 16 brooches out of materials gathered around Christchurch. Between 26 August and 1 October, the public is invited to ’host a brooch’ on an urban expedition.

“Just as a bicycle alters our experience of a city, the brooches produce new sensory experiences, routes and encounters, (re)connecting us with our suroundings,” The National states.

Brooch hosts will document their adventures through a series of photographs, which will then be compiled into a visual map and record of the city.

The project arose from Chan’s concept of the city as a living organism, a ’saprophyte’ that lives on decomposing matter and releases nutrients into the ecosystem.

Her brooches take the waste of the city, transform it and feed back as they are worn. In a city experiencing a state of change and rebirth, the brooches represent the ability for discarded and damaged materials to take on new life.

Host A Brooch blog
hostabrooch.blogspot.com

The National
thenational.co.nz