Found Lines

Interview with Helen Aitken-Kuhnen and Johannes Kuhnen

By: Lindsay MacDonald
Published: 2023/07/13

During an early Ottawa heatwave, Helen Aitken Kuhnen and Johannes Kuhnen were enroute from the Loewe Craft Prize Exhibition opening in New York, where Johannes was a finalist. They were visiting L.A. Pai Gallery with professor of Industrial Design (Carleton), Lois Frankel M.E.Des. (I.D.), PhD. Thanks to gallery owner Lisa Pai, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet them at L.A. Pai Gallery and sit down over ice cream. We talked about linear transfer of knowledge passed from master to student, and the dynamic accumulation of skill and experience collected during two interwoven careers, which have spanned decades.

Proof of the endurance of friendships forged in art schools, Lois, Helen and Johannes overlapped in their studies at what was then known as the Fachhochschule in Düsseldorf, Fachbereich Design (now known as The University of Applied Sciences, Peter Behrens School of Arts). They sit before me as friends and peers, each with influential careers in design, albeit at opposite ends of the globe. Johannes began his relationship with colour in high school where he learned about enamelling and metalwork. From there he would pursue industrial design. He recounts a relatable story where he was given a choice between learning goldsmithing or pursuing a more generalist path oriented toward mechanical engineering wherein you were made to shave down an iron block to make a set square. Johannes's choice along with the guidance of an observant art teacher set him on his path to becoming a student of the great Friedrich Becker and discovering the world of contemporary jewellery.

Helen Aitken-Kuhnen began her education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology where she studied craft, specifically needlework. She became increasingly intrigued by colour and enameling, in a time and place where Johannes had just a few years earlier required his father's permission to begin a goldsmithing apprenticeship. Helen found herself spending much of her high school time as the only female in the male dominated metals studio. Coming of age during the late 1970's, Helen’s independent streak propelled her away from the objective interrogation of value which preoccupied the New Jewellery Movement. Instead, she opted to study under enamellist Sigrid Delius at the Fachhochschule. The student and artist who once enjoyed polishing found stones began using the complex historical techniques of champlevé and cloissonné enamelling, which she first learned in Germany and then studied further from masters in The UK and Japan. Her dedication to mastering her craft has launched a lifetime of work amongst different mediums including her recent Found Lines pendants which could be interpreted as intimate, diagrammatic narratives of the exchange of knowledge through time. 

To an observer it may seem that Helen and Johannes' work occupy opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of motivation and process. Where they intersect is in technical excellence and in their pursuit of the balance of colour. In 1975, gold prices were unmanageable for a young artist, so Johannes turned his attention to anodized aluminum. The industrial process suited the precise engineering of his forms and his systematic approach to design. His early success with this material has established him as a pioneer. Johannes' colour palette has changed over time from subdued hues of blues and greens in Germany to bright acidic magentas and yellows evocative of Australian flora and fauna. Recently shortlisted for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize (2023), Johannes' Vessel is an interlocking masterwork of aluminum, titanium and stainless steel. The colour and lines of the work reference the Australian horizon ablaze with light. Currently, Johannes searches for colour stories in the rocks and stones of New South Wales. He honours the natural surfaces and structures with meticulously crafted settings in a series of brooches titled, Painting in Stone.

Helens' work has also been informed by her home in Australia. Her pieces are impressionistic, intuitive and precious. Often starting from drawing and creating colour palettes for each body of work, Helen records her range of experiences with the land and sea of Australia through colour and form. She wields both light and line expertly as if they were simply tools in her toolbox. Recently, Helen has been capturing observations of nature’s ephemera in enamel to communicate ecological urgency. Titles such as "Angry Sea Anemone" and "Ocean Transition - Dying Ocean" compel one to look again at her deceptively beautiful forms and colour choices.

The Fachhochschule brought these artists together, and brought each to their primary mentors. Helen and Johannes have continued to inform the fields of jewellery and object design as professors and co-gallerists. Together with their daughter they are the directors of Bilk Gallery in Carwoola, NSW just outside Canberra, where they represent a select group of artists, exceptional in their skill and innovation. They emphasize the transference of knowledge as a cornerstone of a career in a craft discipline. Helen is uninterested in cloistering any of her specialized knowledge. She believes the discipline is only getting stronger and identified Canadian enamellist Aurelie Guillaume and American Zachary Lechtenberg as accomplished enamellists with exciting contemporary styles. 

Helen and Johannes are each fearless when it comes to the future. There is no hesitation about CAD (computer aided design). In fact, Johannes was instrumental in ushering in the technology to the Australian National University School of Art. Their only concerns are for the future strength of the artform and its practitioners. Just as they extended their generosity in speaking to me, they are emphatic about a desire to keep the exchange of ideas and material knowledge open and accessible. Helen said it best; "If someone knows what I know, it only makes the discipline stronger".

These "found lines" of learning don't have to be in institutions. Helen and Johannes are great examples of life-long learning as they continue to develop and master their skills and explore across disciplines. Their curiosity, dedication and generosity is palpable and I'm grateful that they paused to take in the work of the dedicated artists represented at L.A. Pai Gallery, and for taking the time to speak with us at MetalAid .

Thank-you Helen and Johannes.

Banner image: Johannes Kuhnen, Interchangeable pendant system, image by Bilk Gallery