Laura Deakin
(b. 1979, Melbourne. Lives and works in Melbourne)

Laura Deakin is a jeweller whose work combines traditional jewellery techniques with industrial and precious materials – a contrast she uses to examine contemporary and political issues.

Recently acquired by NGV, Deakin’s necklace Mygration #14, 2020, comes from her collection Mygration, Yourgration and Ourgration, first exhibited in a solo show at Brunswick Street Gallery as part of Melbourne Design Week. The work is one of twenty necklaces featuring landscapes recalled by people, which explore how memories of home inform our experiences of new places. The child of an immigrant, Deakin grew up with her parents’ longing for a remembered country, before experiencing similar nostalgia after migrating herself. The pendant’s landscape resembles a tapestry, woven with the blurred threads of memory, which was created with tools traditionally used for stone setting. After drilling tiny holes in plexiglass with polishing burs, Deakin filled each pocket with droplets of watercolour paint, which naturally gravitated into the crevices. The image was then sealed in another thin layer of acrylic, hung from a hand-fabricated sterling silver chain and finished with a bone-shaped clasp – a reminder, says Deakin, that migratory journeys are not safe for everyone. Devoid of human footprints, these surreal scenes show how the homes that we carry within us are at once familiar and foreign, real and imagined.

Mygration, Yourgration and Ourgration was selected for Munich’s Schmuck exhibition – Deakin’s fourth appearance at the prestigious international showcase of contemporary jewellery – and was shortlisted for both the Contemporary Wearables award at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery and the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art in 2021. Deakin’s work has toured extensively in both local and international exhibitions, and is held in the permanent collections of the NGV, the Museum of Modern Art & Design in Munich and Galerie Marzee in the Netherlands. Deakin has given workshops and lectures in Germany, the United States and Australia, co-teaching in the Blak Design program in 2021–22 for the Koorie Heritage Trust and project partners the NGV and RMIT University. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from Monash University (2003) and a Master of Jewellery Design from Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts (2010).