About the exhibition

An oracle is a portal to the unknown — a person, place or object believed to hold knowledge, power or a connection to something beyond us.

Oracle considers the talismanic qualities of jewellery and the ways a piece can transcend adornment to embody meaning, power and identity. Bringing together nearly 50 works from the Griffith Regional Art Gallery’s National Contemporary Jewellery Collection and Wagga Wagga Art Gallery collections the exhibition explores jewellery as wearable artwork, charged with stories, symbolism and possibilities.

Featuring work by Blanche Tilden, Bronwyn Goss, Marian Hosking, Peter Tully, Julie Blyfield, Christel van der Laan, Johannes Kuhnen, Tracy Pateman and Juanita McLauchlan, Oracle reveals the extraordinary ways contemporary jewellers have used material, form and symbolism to create objects that carry meaning beyond their physical form.

Woven throughout the exhibition is Riverine Nocturne, a wall drawing by regional artist Sophie Chauncy. Living and working on Yanco Creek near Narrandera, Chauncy draws on the regional topography, waterways, landscapes, native species and nocturnal magic of this place.

Sitting quietly alongside the jewellery, Riverine Nocturne becomes almost a whisper, offering glimpses of the landscape, its species and stories, and a sense of the place in which the exhibition sits.

Griffith Regional Art Gallery (GRAG) holds the National Contemporary Jewellery Collection, the only collection of its kind in regional NSW. The collection was started in 1988 and has been growing steadily ever since. The National Contemporary Jewellery Award (NCJA) was started by the Griffith Regional Art Gallery in 1992 to support the development of the collection and to promote contemporary jewellery practice. The biennial NCJA is an acquisitive award with an accompanying exhibition and two prizes awarded.

Sophie Chauncy is a Riverina-based visual artist working across mixed media, drawing, paper and canvas. Drawing is central to her practice, incorporating intuitive mark-making, layered ink and watercolour, nature stencilling and detailed representations of native plants and animals. Growing up alongside the Murrumbidgee River, Sophie’s practice is deeply informed by the Riverina landscape. Her work explores the interconnectedness of biodiversity, agriculture and the natural environment, with a particular focus on birdlife, native species and the importance of nurturing thriving ecosystems.