'Ground Work' is a solo presentation by contemporary New Zealand Jeweller Craig McIntosh, which features a new body of work developed in his Dunedin studio over an 18 month period. Primarily working in Pakohe (Metamorphosed Argillite) and Basalt, McIntosh’s making practice has been shaped by an ongoing relationship with the geological history and stone harvesting sites of New Zealand’s South Island. 

Positioning himself within a lineage that has sought to critically interrogate Pākeha use of stone (and other indigenous materials) within the colonial context, McIntosh has developed a practice that is self-aware and culturally critical of the impulse to appropriate. Drawing instead on abstractions from the fields of architecture and engineering, this body of work continues McIntosh’s experimentation with composite carving techniques, which he deploys to shape an embodied image of place formed of manifold relationships and responsibilities.

By transitioning this series of objects away from wearability, yet remaining firmly situated in the context of contemporary jewellery, 'Ground Work' gestures to that which cannot be possessed, and instead edges us toward that which possesses us; the echoes and structural force of a historical process, to which we are called to awaken, embrace, and transform.

Craig McIntosh is a contemporary jeweller currently based in Dunedin, New Zealand. In his recent work, he has sought to develop technologically assisted methods for fabrication and construction in stone. In 2016 Craig was the inaugural recipient of Dame Doreen’s Gift: a biennial bestowal from the Blumhardt Foundation which seeks to acknowledge and foster excellence in the field of Craft. He has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally, and was included in the touring survey exhibition of New Zealand jewellery, Wunderruma (2014-2015) curated by Karl Fritsch and Warwick Freeman. He is represented by The National (Christchurch), Avid (Wellington), Masterworks (Auckland) and Fingers (Auckland).