Natalie Holtsbaum

Radical Designer and Mastress Goldsmith Natalie Holtsbaum

Natalie Holtsbaum is an Interdisciplinary Artist and EcoScenographer, living in Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Creating a stage for ritual, she adorns the body amongst scenographic installations by translating complex concepts through an interdisciplinary studio practice that prioritises natural materials within a cradle-to-cradle design ethos.

Holtsbaum earned a Bachleor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) from RMIT. She applies her longitudinal trade and expertise in the foundations of jewellery adornment in larger-scale experiential works that seek to activate the senses and deep-rooted biophilic connections. The environments she designs integrate pathways for the audience to respect the material’s cyclic lifespan, which she interrogates through her master craftsmanship. She seeks to frame corporeality through a balance of refined aesthetics and the monumental scale of materials; just as wearing a piece of jewellery can elicit an emotional or socio-political response, so too can experiencing a site-specific, whole-body response, like goosebumps on your arms when a particular realisation is ignited. Tactile installations like these foster a connection with the energies of nature guided by a worldview that recognises dependency, fragility, finitude, and mortality. Holtsbaum’s practice gives rise to opulent, sensory-driven artistic outcomes that prioritise ecological health and ethical stewardship, stretching perceptions of value and material consumption to integrate a holistic awareness of societal norms and power structures as properties that can be transfigured in the act of making,

Natalie Holtsbaum is featured in the ☲fireside☲ talk series Possibilities and Perils of materials from the perspective of a Radical Designer and Mastress Goldsmith

43m table made had 4 sections = Old growth, logging/windfall, burn, degradation, for the Forest Congress hosted at MONA

Natalie Holtsbaum reflects upon how the very material of her work seethes with telluric currants and mutant energy that pass through geographical territories—moving beyond the idea of jewels as extractive— moving towards an art practice that celebrates the possibility of designing with limited resources for eco-social transformation literally in radical acts of (critical decision) hands-on making.