Raw and Refined with Phoebe Porter

Gorman Art Centre Resident, Phoebe Porter, spoke with Emma-Kate Wilson about her upcoming exhibition Raw and Refined for the 2026 CRAFT + DESIGN CANBERRA FESTIVAL.

EKW: This year’s CRAFT + DESIGN CANBERRA FESTIVAL theme is Dissent. Even the exhibition location seems to challenge the usual idea of where an exhibition should be, particularly with jewellery, which we might not initially expect to find in an airport.

PP: The whole history of the contemporary jewellery movement is about questioning values and perceived notions of value. Jewellery is tied up in cultural institutions and traditions, from marriages to christenings, so contemporary jewellery questions traditional ideas about what is valuable.

The movement has used alternative materials, on the one hand to democratise jewellery by making it more affordable, but also to ask what else is valuable beyond precious materials or sentimental value. There’s the value of the artist’s ideas and intent, and the skilled craftsmanship that takes so many years to build up.

EKW: There’s also a strong contrast in the works between raw and worked material. I was thinking about that juxtaposition.

PP: Yes, that juxtaposition, or contrast, is really important for this work. I’m combining raw specimens in their natural form with my signature precision components.

I see the beauty in the raw materials and appreciate them for their inherent beauty and their imperfections. They also remind me of natural landscapes. There’s something in the work that makes you think about these materials being collected; they come from natural landscapes that are beautiful, and the materials become even more valuable because they’re finite.

EKW: I’d love to hear about how you source your materials, the process of finding them and then putting them together.

PP: The first gold specimens in this whole series were collected by my grandfather in Papua New Guinea. He was a surveyor, so they were passed down to me and were something I had in the studio.

I was making an earlier series where I was balancing different metals against each other. I was making necklaces with a long bar and two different parts that were the same weight, so they would balance when you wear them. I used aluminium on one side, which is much less dense, so it’s lighter for the same size than 22-karat yellow gold, which is very dense.

I was making that work and had these gold nuggets on my bench. I thought they would look really interesting balanced against this precision bar. That was the beginning of working with the raw nugget.

The other specimens have been collected in all different ways, through gem merchants and other sources. One of my favourite experiences was collecting through the Canberra Lapidary Club’s Canberra Rock Swap. That’s where I got a lot of the Australian copper specimens I’m working with, and I met some of the people who found them in places like Broken Hill, Cloncurry in Queensland and Moonta in South Australia.

I also have copper specimens from Kazakhstan, which look quite different. They’re more crystalline, so they look like little triangles and shapes joined together.

EKW: I noticed there’s also meteorite from Argentina.

PP: Yes, they are pieces from a huge meteoroid called Campo del Cielo or “Field of the Sky” that impacted earth around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. It’s predominantly iron, so it’s quite similar in composition to stainless steel, which is also made predominantly of iron. The meteorite pieces are a deep, rich grey colour, while stainless steel is much brighter.

With all these works, I’m forced to work in quite a different way because instead of making all the shapes and forms myself, I’m having to respond to what is already there. It’s working with a found object in a way I’ve never really done before in my work.

It’s probably making me use forms and combine things in ways I wouldn’t have without the initial form as inspiration. In the set of rings, for example, there are two specimens — the meteorite and the copper — that already had a curve that was the right diameter to fit around a finger. That gave me the idea to try making a set of rings.

EKW: So the materials themselves continue the dialogue with the forms.

PP: I enjoy making the “refined” parts very geometric and minimal. The stainless-steel hoops I make for the earrings and necklaces have a pure circular form. I really enjoy that in combination with the raw natural specimens.

EKW: That juxtaposition continues into the jewellery itself. The pure circle isn’t necessarily something you would expect alongside an irregular natural specimen, and it also becomes a statement through how the jewellery is worn.

PP: Yes, and how it moves on the body, sits on the body and its weight. Weight becomes really important.

The specimens I’ve used on the rings would be unsuitable for earrings because they’re too heavy. So that becomes something to consider. When I’m putting the two elements together, I’m aiming for a visual balance so that when you wear them, there’s a sense of harmony and balance.

EKW: I’d also love to hear about working at the Gorman Arts Centre, in a heritage building and an art community in Canberra, and whether that informs your practice.

PP: It definitely does. It’s an interesting heritage building. It’s more than 100 years old and just one block from the Canberra Centre, and is surrounded by heritage gardens that are also around 100 years old.

It’s an unusual group of buildings, with two symmetrical courtyards and studios wrapping around them, so we look out onto these beautiful garden courtyards.

It’s wonderful, as someone who predominantly works on their own, to have other artists around. It’s a diverse art centre with lots of different practices. To me, it’s the perfect balance because I have my own space, so I can shut the door and work in a very focused, uninterrupted way when I need to, but I can also be part of a creative community.

The Raw and Refined free exhibition series is on display as part of the 2026 CRAFT + DESIGN CANBERRA FESTIVAL at the Canberra Airport, 5 – 22 November.

Celebrating Raw and Refined: Phoebe Porter in Conversation with Kevin Murray is a free talk happening on Thursday 12 November.

Phoebe Porter is also a stallholder at the 2026 CRAFT + DESIGN CANBERRA UNDERCURRENT DESIGN MARKET happening at Ainslie Arts Centre 13 – 15 November.

Images: Hero image, Andrew Sikorski. Additional images, PewPewStudios for ArtsACT
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson