About
Aimee Fairman is a Melbourne-based installation artist and jeweller.
Her practice employs multi-sensory immersive installation, kinetic sculpture and photography to engage with ideas of psycho-geographical landscapes. Through both ephemeral site-specific research projects, gallery-based installation and jewellery, Fairman’s practice considers ideas of the simulacra to explore the shifts in territory between the virtual and real, actual and pictorial, organic and artifice.
Drawing on thematic and technical cross-overs from her sculptural installation practice, Fairman combines ideas of Kitsch, Romanticism and Science Fiction with geological and botanical forms to produce wearable pieces imbued with symbolism.
METHODOLOGY + THEORY
Each piece of the Fairman’s resin jewellery range is personally hand-sculpted, then individually hand-cast in carefully curated colours. Fairman’s extensive experience as a sculptor and installation artist is distilled into each of her exquisitely detailed, one-of-a-kind resin pieces.
She refers to her jewellery as “Geo-Alchemy” – highly sculptural forms that capture suspended moments of nuanced colour and iridescence, formed through a process of material knowledge and chance.
Her carefully considered method of production means that the dynamics within each piece are one of a kind. Even within a set colourway, each piece holds unique poetics of iridescent atmosphere. It is in this delicate individuality that these wearable art forms gain their preciousness. Fairman’s examination of the simulacra is evident in even the smallest of her jewellery pieces. The forms evoke notions of replication of a naturalist geography, whilst upon closer inspection, the hybrid colour palette and alchemical infusions allow Fairman to “paint” enclosed, miniaturised environments of phenomena. Whilst her use of moulds creates consistency in sculptural form, what is then highlighted is the artist’s gesture in the individual chemical “atmospheres” of each piece.
Fairman’s jewellery is cast in epoxy and polyurethane resins and finished with Rose Gold and Sterling Silver, with all earrings set on individually hand-made studs.
BIO
Fairman completed her Masters of Fine Art at RMIT in 2007. In 2008, Fairman was awarded the first inaugural RMIT/AIR artist-in-residence Krems Residency at the Künstmeile Krems, Austria. In 2009 a further residency was awarded by Kultur Service Steiermark at the Rondo Künstlerateliers, Graz, Austria.
Fairman has exhibited actively both nationally and internationally, obtained critical reviews in The Age, online forums and interviews in NGV Magazine (2017) and Arts Hub (2012). From 2011-2014 she gained representation with Melbourne commerical gallery Beam Contemporary. Fairman has undertaken commissioned installation projects for the Melbourne Fringe Festival (2011) and Gertrude Street Projection Festival (2012). She has been a finalist in numerous fine art scholarships, sculpture awards and art prizes. In 2012 Fairman returned to RMIT to undertake a Certificate of Art In Public Space.
To compliment her art practice, from 2014-2016 Fairman worked as Education and Families Administrator for Regional Arts Victoria facilitating cross-curricular arts education programs for Primary and Secondary schools to inspire art across the state.
Her jewellery is showcased at the National Gallery of Victoria design store, Melbourne.
IMAGE CREDITS:
All product photography by Aimee Fairman unless otherwise listed in individual product listing.
Modelled Photoshoot Credits:
Photography/MUA: Rachel Mia. Models: Mahla Bird/Themme Fatale & Sally Ersch
Photography by Aven Frey. MUA: Jessica Vovers. Models: Laney Day, Susie & Jessica Vovers.