Home — a familiar place. We all know it, we all remember it and we all seek to create it. Belongings with us, we seek out a new nest. Across windy oceans with strange ground beneath our feet, we risk everything, leaving memories trapped in time. On a voyage to an unknown destination there are no seat-belts, not safety plans, no exit strategies, we will simply hope for better. Home — a foreign place. We don’t yet know it, we can’t remember it but we seek to create it.
— Laura Deakin

Solo exhibition in Munich during COVID-19

In November last year Laura Deakin’s latest body of work, Mygration, Yourgration, Ourgration, was accepted into the prestigious annual contemporary jewellery exhibition in Munich, Schmuck. Parallel to this, Deakin was due to exhibit a large body of work at Gallery Wittenbrink during Munich Jewellery Week (9–15 March).

Needless to say, the trip was a vastly different than expected due to COVID-19.

Two days before she was due to fly out the organisers of Schmuck announced they would be required to cancel the event, however Gallery Wittenbrink (along with most other galleries) decided to hold their exhibitions regardless. Who knew things would escalate as they did? The exhibition opened to a good crowd, but sadly as things developed and a lockdown of Munich loomed, everything quickly faded and she found herself scrambling to book a seat on an early flight home.

Using traditional jewellery tools and techniques with contemporary materials, this new body of work explores notions behind human migration and the connections we all have to it. Small dots of colour coalesce together to form a complete image. Like weary eyes walking through rain, the viewer is invited to form an image of home.