Julie Ewington

Recently AJF received some very sad news from Australia. Mari Funaki, jeweler and owner of Gallery Funaki in Melbourne, passed away on the 13th May 2010. We asked Julie Ewington, curator of Australian art at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, to write some words in memory of an important woman whose passion for contemporary jewelry connected Australia and the world.

Mari Funaki in Gallery Funaki, Melbourne

Born and raised in Matsue in rural Japan, Mari Funaki came to Australia in 1979. Expected by her family to make a traditional marriage, she found a new life in Australia while travelling the world as a young woman, staying in Melbourne to become a leading member of the city’s cultural renaissance in recent decades.

Funaki’s story is exemplary of how shifting country and culture can unleash an individual’s potential. ‘If I had remained in Japan, I would never have been doing what I am doing now. In Australia I learnt freedom to express myself and to build my own identity.’ Australia is composed precisely of such stories of transplanted lives and talents.

Mari Funaki, Bracelet

In her late thirties Funaki found her true path in gold and silversmithing. She retrained at RMIT and plunged into the community of makers centred on the university, including a traineeship with Marian Hosking in 1993.  From then, Funaki was central to Melbourne’s vibrant art and design, not only as a maker but as an enthusiast and patron through her gallery, tirelessly promoting contemporary jewelry.

The crisp excellence of Funaki’s jewelry was immediately recognised, and from her graduating year was included in major national and international exhibitions, museum and important private collections, and awarded important prizes both in Australia and overseas. Her approach was distinctive, with a repertoire of elegant angular black steel and fine gold brooches, rings and bracelets established in the first decade; this gradually expanded to include complex containers. These sprightly forms sometimes resembled insects or leaves, but were often simply analogues of physical principles, always beautifully resolved.

Mari Funaki, Rings

Funaki’s approach was intuitive, firmly rooted in Japanese ways of seeing: ‘Packaging is one of the most recognisable characteristics in Japanese culture. The box is not just to contain something, but it is used to present something, to treat it with respect and add an air of anticipation.’ At first the containers sheltered hidden spaces, but over time became freer, more experimental, with internal spaces discernible only through close observation; new shapes suggested the built environment. Recently, some works were scaled-up to make large sculptures. Working with a personal vocabulary, she prized the way each piece suggested emotional states or memories. Refined, elegant, impeccable, her work distilled observation into beauty.

Importantly, Funaki created Australia’s most important private gallery for contemporary jewelry. Passionate in her commitment, she saw that Australia’s contemporary jewelers needed a showcase and opened Gallery Funaki in 1995. This tiny bolt-hole is one of the world’s best addresses for contemporary jewelry. Funaki’s vision was international: she wanted Australian work seen in the broadest context, showing Europeans Otto Künzli, Karl Fritsch and Nel Linnsen, and New Zealanders Warwick Freeman and Lisa Walker, together with leading Australians such as Hosking, Carlier Makigawa, Sally Marsland and Julie Blyfield. This was a symmetrical dialogue: Funaki tirelessly organised Australian exhibitions abroad and welcomed many artists to her adopted country.

Mari Funaki finally succumbed to the breast cancer she battled so valiantly. She is survived by her beloved mother Mitsuko and brothers Masaya and Takuya Funaki of Matsue, Japan, her friends in the Australian and international artistic communities, and the legacy of support for her fellow-artists.  She died at the height of her powers, working on new sculptures. On 6 August the National Gallery of Victoria will open her solo exhibition at its Federation Square building, and later this year the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra unveils a two-metre high sculpture by Funaki, commissioned to celebrate opening of its new galleries. And in her North Carlton garden, Mari Funaki’s cherry tree awaits its next spring blossoming.

You can visit Gallery Funaki’s website by clicking here.