Naama Haneman

Between chaos and order

• Naama devotes herself to vessels
• Her first specialisation is jewellery
• She was awestruck by silversmithing

Naama Haneman is a visionary, young metal artist. After specialising in jewellery at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, she worked as a jewellery designer for commercial brands, while exhibiting her own pieces in contemporary art and jewellery shows all over the world. Then she moved to London for a Master’s degree at the John Cass University: here she was suddenly spellbound by silversmithing and soon left jewellery. “For the first time it felt like I was in the right place for me. Working with metal on a big scale felt different from anything else” she says. Naama sculpts in metal through a movement renewed every moment by emotion, without any previous plan or intention to build a useful object, devoting herself completely to the vessels.

Interview

©Yossi Masa

©Naama Haneman

Did you learn from a master?

I’m grateful to two masters who gave me the basic knowledge and the love of the field: Vered Kaminski and Simone Ten Hompel. But wherever I work, I learn new techniques and ways to engage with the metal. I believe in sharing knowledge, I learn from students and colleagues as well.

How would you define what you do?

I’m a silversmith and metal artist, combining fine art and applied art. I see artwork as something we connect to by touching, not just looking. It can be useful or decorative. But I do want it to be alive, in a relentless movement even after I’ve decided to finish it.

Where do you find inspiration?

Chaos and order that co-exist in nature and objects inspires me to explore the meeting points and the contradictions between different shapes and compositions. I choose colours, materials and textures according to the contrast they made, searching how and where they become one.

Do you master any specific techniques?

I use traditional craft techniques to form contemporary shapes. A two-dimensional, flat sheet of metal is transformed into three-dimensional objects by heating, hammering, raising, chasing and repoussé (professional methods), with full control of the metal.

Naama Haneman is a rising star: she began her career in 2017 and she started teaching in 2018

Works

©Boaz Nobelman

©Boaz Nobelman

©Boaz Nobelman

©David Hobson

Where