Anna Davern

Anna Davern’s SHIRLEY & DOLORES functions as a hybrid object that merges jewelry, image, and narrative device into a single wearable form. Created for Made | Worn, the work reflects Davern’s long-standing interest in storytelling through material accumulation and theatrical construction.

Formally, the necklace is symmetrical and frontal, reading almost as a flattened portrait or reliquary. The surface is densely packed with plastic pearls that create a uniform reflective field. Their repetition establishes rhythm while actively supporting hierarchy. The composition and imagery encourages the eye to move across the object rather than settle on a single point. The imagery is immediately legible. Two cats occupy the central field, mirrored and alert. Their placement anchors the composition both visually and symbolically.

Plywood and biscuit tin form a deliberate domestic armature. These materials reinforce the work’s flatness and graphic quality, anchoring it in the language of the everyday and the ornamental. Gold and gemstones are present, but they do not dominate. Instead, they are embedded within the composition, treated as one material among many, acting as markers of status or luxury.

Beneath the imagery of the cats hang small human figures of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, rendered as pendants rather than autonomous forms. Their reduced scale and suspended position suggest dependency, control, and vulnerability. While the cats read as familiar and even humorous, their dominance is unmistakable. Davern’s use of animals associated with domesticity complicates this hierarchy, introducing charm as a mechanism of power.

SHIRLEY & DOLORES draws on Davern’s broader narrative for Made | Worn, a fantastical retelling of exploration and colonisation. The necklace functions as a wearable tableau, collapsing historical narrative into an object meant for the body. Plastic pearls and found materials evoke costume, inheritance, and decorative excess, while the gemstones point toward extraction, trade, and accumulated wealth. Davern does not distill her critique into a singular gesture; instead, she overwhelms the viewer with material contradiction and narrative density. Humor plays a strategic role here. The pearls, the cats, and the theatrical construction disarm the viewer, allowing more uncomfortable power structures to surface gradually.

When worn, the necklace becomes performative. It refuses to disappear into the body, instead positioning the wearer as an active participant in the work’s narrative.

Ultimately, SHIRLEY & DOLORES treats jewelry as a carrier of cultural memory rather than personal adornment. Davern uses excess, irony, and storytelling to create an object that holds history in plain sight. A history that is unresolved, layered, and deliberately difficult to ignore.

References

Anna Davern. “Anna Davern.” Accessed September 18, 2025.
https://annadavern.com/

Onwards Gallery. “Anna Davern.” Accessed September 18, 2025.
https://www.onwardsgallery.com/anna-davern

Australian Design Centre. “Anna Davern – Design Isolate.” Accessed September 18, 2025.
https://australiandesigncentre.com/past-exhibitions-and-events/design-isolate/anna-davern/

Australian Design Centre. Made | Worn: Australian Contemporary Jewellery. Accessed September 18, 2025.
https://australiandesigncentre.com/

Tractor Girl. “The Crafted Object: Anna Davern.” Accessed September 18, 2025.
https://tractorgirl.com.au/the-crafted-object-anna-davern