RMIT School of Art is thrilled to see so many staff, students and alumni featured in the NGV exhibition Melbourne Now.

Today we feature PhD candidate and sessional lecturer Claire McArdle.

Claire McArdle is a jewellery and object maker with an interest in tools, performance and the making process. Her concept-led practice is grounded in materiality and technique. She carefully selects mediums that reflect her ideas and, where necessary, researches the appropriate skills to bring them into being.

For Melbourne Now, McArdle presents several pieces from her 2020 collection Small Tools for Change, a group of neckpieces that draw attention to the plight of endangered native animals and insects, including the regent honeyeater, Leadbeater’s possum, south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo, Bornemissza’s stag beetle and swift parrot. Threaded on leather are small metal trowels, made from old car exhausts, with totemic handles carved from the wood of trees associated with the animal they depict, all of which are in danger of becoming extinct through the degradation of their habitats from human intervention and climate change. Together, the two halves of these neckpieces form shovels, which can be worn around the neck to start conversations, or used to plant a tree. “Every conversation or tree planted is a small act of change”, the artist explains.

Free entry
Booking is not required

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square
Level 3

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