Current Obsession Paper for Munich Jewellery Week 2025

For 2025, we’re shaking things up by inviting guest editors Zoe Black (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Pākehā) and Victoria McAdam from Aotearoa New Zealand to join the editorial team. Why? Because fresh perspectives make for better conversations. Our approach? Loose, flexible, and full of possibilities. We’re bringing in voices beyond our own, with guest contributors shaping both the topics and the editorial direction. That means more dialogue, more perspectives, and a broader, richer view of contemporary jewellery today. Expect sharp writing, stunning imagery and insights from unexpected places.

In this issue our guest editors chose kohā as an articulation of the exchange and collaboration that underpins their contemporary jewellery community. Koha is a vital concept in te ao Māori (the Māori world). It references the act of offering a gift or contribution as an expression of gratitude. The exchange of koha can begin ties between parties that span generations, and it has remained a consistent and vital practice within te ao Māori to ensure balance and connections between people and communities.

Our guest editors visit Piha beach on the west coast of Aotearoa so works by Neke Moa and Stevei Houkāmau can get some sea and sun. Shot by Edith Amituanai with art direction by Sofia Tekela-Smith, this collaborative shoot radiates the magic of friendship and the ways in which these makers express and coalesce their belonging to Aotearoa and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.

Writer and maker lambert composes a letter to Fa’afetai, a piece by Rowan Panther, describing the relationships between cultural adornment, their makers and their wearers.

Catching up ahead of the launch of Warwick Freeman’s retrospective exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Freeman and curator Kim Paton discuss the narrative of making and making narratives in a long-form interview.

We return to the west coast with Current Obsession’s Marina Elenskaya and photographer Sam Hartnett to visit Aotearoa jewellery kaumātua (elder) Alan Preston at his home and workshop perched in the bush.

Finally, we meet Sofia Tekela-Smith’s Brown Eyes Blue portraits – in equal parts poetic and powerful.