SIM LÜTTIN

Having always drawn inspiration from nature, Sim's interest is exploring year-long time-based projects that respond to everyday moments to create elevated and conceptual bodies of work. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, has worked in public and private collections worldwide, and is represented by Charon Kransen, New York.

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Born in 1977 in Naarm, Melbourne, Sim has European heritage, with her father's side originating from Switzerland. She grew up in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne and was encouraged to learn and do things meticulously, and she approaches her creative practice this way.

 

Sim's work has a sense of calm and sophistication—the delicacy of the forms and the attention to detail created in her signature monochromatic silver and black colour scheme. Her distinctive aesthetic embraces her love of oxidised sterling silver and the carefully considered additions of alternative materials, such as wood, graphite, glass, and sublimated aluminium. She transforms the materials she works with into creative, poetic, and sensitive pieces. 1

 

Nostalgia and melancholy imbue her work, which delves into nuances of the every day and results in reflections that are conceptually engaging and beautiful. Sim challenges her self-imposed paradigms through her work by physically recording and recreating her daily experiences and environment, allowing her time to reflect on aspects of the human condition. 

 

Her practice plots a course across time: examining notions of ritual, personal authenticity, and materiality—she inserts meaning at each point on a highly personal internal map. Her practice is grounded in daily routine, and the first charted position is her gaze: a still or moving image is taken, uploaded, and then distilled. A brief pause allows ideas, motifs and shapes to emerge that are translated into objects. This pause enables Sim to consider what these moments are presenting, searching for meaning in the often mundane, continually reaching for a connection between instinct (image) and intellect (object). 2 

 

In the mid-2000s, Sim began time-based, year-long, piece-a-day enquiries that attempt to find meaning in daily rituals and observations. Her object-based practice has expanded to include photography and video that she records on her camera phone. She then numbers, titles, and organises the images into monochromatic and chronological collections that she archives, forming a rich source of research material to inform new series of contemporary jewellery.

 

Sim has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria; Museum Bellerive, Zurich; Galerie Marzee, Netherlands; Museum Voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem; Museum of Arts + Crafts, Itami; Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco; SoFA New York and Chicago with Charon Kransen Arts. She has presented seven solo shows in Australia and the USA and has artwork in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia; Bluestone Collection, Melbourne; Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne; and Gallerie Marzee in the Netherlands. She was the Deputy Chair at Craft Victoria for three years, stepping down in 2021.

 

Sim lives and works in Naarm, Melbourne as a contemporary jeweller, craftsperson, artist, Senior Curator & Gallery Manager at Arts Project Australia and co-founder of Art et al.