Grace Elizabeth Flinn | Reliquiae XIII

Artist Statement

I Know You of Old is a collection of research exploring ritual, material, and relics through three series of vessels. Inside the collection, each vessel engages in a reflexive dialogue with the other, presenting their individual and collective narratives. Each relic engages with the passage of time and plays with the tension between creating something new and knowing the old.

Nests and Moons examine the ritualising experiences of craft objects. Its oxidised silver surface draws us in, as we orbit and organise ourselves to discover the interior. Each Reliquiae vessel captures the beauty of time and elemental transformation, with rainbow surfaces created by intense and direct flame. Collapsing into themselves, it is the absence within ruins that invites quiet contemplation. The Half-Blooms vessel has a textural complexity that infers a life within the material. It exists in an in-between state, with a narrative of hope and renewal. Together, this collection creates a thoughtful encounter with craft objects, offering a site for quiet contemplation against the pressures of modern life.

Artist Bio

Grace Elizabeth Flinn (she/her) is a Scottish-Australian artist and metalsmith based in Narrm/Melbourne. She uses historical and contemporary metalsmithing techniques to create craft objects and jewellery. Her practice utilises the relic as an echo of the past to explore the ritualising power and poetry of craft objects.

Grace completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) at RMIT in 2024, where she received the Wolf Wennrich Award for Craftsmanship.