Blandine Hallé draws on her eclectic background to create her jewellery.
Blandine Hallé’s art practice is influenced strongly by “both European and Australian cultures that intermesh with each other” she says.
Ms Hallé grew up in Paris until she was 26 and travelled the globe before settling down in Western Australia in 1997.
After living in Paris for three decades this experience informed her sense of aesthetic and design through the exposure to a wonderful array of art exhibitions.
Ms Hallé says her artwork is a commentary on her emotional, cultural and sensory experiences as a French-Australian expatriate and migrant.
“Contemporary jewellery, photography and digital art are the fields of my artistic explorations” Ms Hallé says.
Ms Hallé sees matter as a language playing with form, texture and colour just as a writer would play with words to write a poem.
When Ms Hallé travels around landscapes, she collects objects and also takes pictures and brings them home to work with.
In 2017 Ms Hallé studied for a Postgraduate in Barcelona and found the richness of architecture to be very inspiring.
However Ms Hallé says French culture can be very bound to tradition and history and at some point she felt constrained and needed to explore somewhere new.
Here in Australia Ms Hallé feels no restrictions to her creativity. Ms Hallé says she is constantly nourished and inspired by the natural environment.
She is also very sensitive to indigenous culture and the history of colonisation.
Ms Hallé mostly works with unique pieces of jewellery because she loves exploring different materials and techniques, describing her collections as original and unique.
Last year Ms Hallé really enjoyed working with seeds husks, whether from native plants from her garden or from fruits she had eaten.
She also says she has “a good collection of recycled bits of wood that I love to draw from.”
Ms Hallé likes to problem solve and use lateral thinking.
Ms Hallé uses photography a lot in her creative process and she had heard of a photographer who gave himself the challenge of doing one photo per day and she thought it was a good idea.
Then in 2013 she was in Brisbane visiting an Artisan boutique, she saw their whole window display filled with 100 different cups.
“The ceramist had done 100 cups over 100 days, a different one each day.”
This inspired her to embark on a challenge named 40 days 40 necklaces.
“The experience was full immersion into the art practice.”
Ms Hallé found the time limit of 40 days 40 necklaces very stimulating as she had no time to procrastinate.
“Especially with problem solving, I had to find the solution now, not tomorrow” Ms Hallé says.
Overall the 40 days 40 necklaces project built her confidence, both in Ms Hallé’s creative process and in her technical skills.
Ms Hallé often has her collections of work exhibited and has a couple of exhibitions coming up this September and November, 2021.
She says last year there was a Connexions exhibition presented during the international festival Parcours Bijoux in Paris featuring Ms Hallé’s pieces.
“We wanted to present the breadth and depth of Australian jewellery makers with cross-cultural backgrounds.”
Ms Hallé along with five other artists will have their jewellery on display at Connexions at Gallery Central from September 28 to October 16, 2021 as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA21) in Perth and Ms Hallé says “We are all excited to see our works finally exhibited.”
Ms Hallé says she’s also a part of the Counterpoint exhibition organised by JMGA WA which is curated by Ted Snell with 19 other artists.
It will run from November 3-19, 2021 at Stala Contemporary in West Perth and will present a variety of styles of jewellery.
For more information on Ms Hallé’s work visit her website www.blandinehalle.com or follow her on Instagram @blandinehalle.
For more information on the Connexions exhibition visit www.connexions-exhibition.com or follow @connexions_exhibition on Instagram.
For more information on JMGA’s Counterpoint event visit https://www.jmgawa.com.au/events/counterpoint or follow @jmga_wa on Instagram.