BOOsT

Josephine Cachemaille and Lisa Walker

The National 07 May – 06 Jun 2026

BOOsT was the culmination of conversations and a developing friendship between Josephine and Lisa working from their respective studios on New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Lisa was deeply focused on making Heads - stitched, stuffed, strange entities that one can wear like a second self, while Josephine continued to make suggested bodies from clay and cloth dresses.

Lisa Walker is a contemporary jeweler based in Wellington, New Zealand. She has a Diploma of Craft and Design from Dunedin School of Art (1989), and co-founded Workshop 6 in 1993. Walker studied at the Akadamie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, under Otto Künzli (1995-2001), before establishing her own studio in Munich (2002-2009). She now lives and works in Island Bay, Wellington.

Lisa Walker repurposes the world into a wearable language. Well known for her expansive use of materials, influences and construction techniques, with iconoclastic exuberance Walker poses questions about the possibilities and meaning of wearable objects. Remaining in close conversation with the history–and potential futures–of the medium, Walker’s work is deeply invested in exploring the limits and boundaries of what jewellery can do.

Walker has an extensive international exhibition history and her work is held in many international collections. Her prestigious awards include Foerderpreis der Stadt Muenchen (2007), Francoise van den Bosch Award (2009), and the Arts Laureate Award of the New Zealand Arts Foundation (2015). A major retrospective of her work I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered opened at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018. A touring version of this exhibition, She wants to go to her bedroom but can’t be bothered toured to RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, Australia (2019) and Villa Stuck in Munich, Germany(2020). In 2022, Lisa received an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit (ONZM). In 2023, she received the Bayerische Staatpreis (Bavarian State Prize) in Munich.

For more images of Lisa Walker and Josephine’s work visit The National.

Read the exhibition publication by Rosa Cachemaille here.