Johanna Zellmer
Artist statement
I am German.
On second thought, am I?:
in New Zealand, my current country of residence, I must declare if I am:
√ New Zealander.
This makes me rather
√ New Zealand European
as well as
√ Pakeha
or I might elect to choose
√ Other.
It is interesting for me, as a German, to tick the box Other. Germans have, since the second world war, been thought of as those who took otherness to an extreme.
Research Expertise: The characteristics of metal as a plastic medium. Construction of a national identity. Cross-cultural issues in contemporary Visual Arts. Conceptions of contemporary NZ and Pacific Jewellery. Jewellery, Metalwork, Blacksmithing, Farriering.
Johanna Zellmer (*1968) completed a formal apprenticeship as a Goldsmith in Germany and a masters degree at the Australian National University Canberra School of Art. She currently coordinates the Master of Fine Arts programme and continues to lecture in Jewellery and Metalsmithing at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in New Zealand. She calls a small farm in Dunedin ‘home’, from where she engages with research on cross-cultural matters.
See Staff Research for a more comprehensive Research and Exhibition Profile for Johanna.
Contact: Johanna Zellmer
(right and below) Work by Johanna Zellmer from water vessels series and Altius Fortius Citius (2005 -2007):
Water vessels, silver alloy
Cutting Nationalsozialismus in process
Schopenhauer coin in process
Eagle with powerpole - German commemorative silver coin in process
Memory - German commemorative silver coin in process
Eagle 2 (2008) in process - inside of German commemorative silver coin, forged Silver alloy
solander box for coin-scape (of a series of 47), cut, forged, bound, embossed
Silver coins, card, Steel, book cloth, rubber - 135x135x15mm