Actually… It was perfect.
It’s funny that an exhibition celebrating imperfection was in fact rather perfect. Let’s blame the eyes of Karen McCartney, Sharyn Cairns and Glen Probstel for that.
We partnered with them to make the exhibition ‘Perfect Imperfect’ which ran from the 28th April to the 8th May in the Nishi Gallery. Conceptually, the exhibition was conceived to spring from the pages of a new book by the same name by the above mentioned trio. The physical experience of exhibition was like being lost inside the book’s pages – inside a world of mutability, of decay, of irregularity, of accident, of chance – in the most wondrous way.
There were more than 50 objects collected from 26 artists from all over the world. The elusive Alison Coates hung a central, folded, kelp-like work accompanied by sculptures of bone, wood and rock. Jacqui Fink showed several works from her series of extreme knitting experiments. The most impressive was the oversized wall hanging made from the fleece of a 700 strong flock of sheep. The wool was naturally coloured, cut into wide sheets, felted and arm stitched (yes arm stitched) to form a yarn, and then knitted one very large stitch at a time.
James Shaw and Marjan Van Aubel ‘Well Proven Chair’ celebrated the role of accident; its unusual texture the result of wood shavings from the factory floor combining with a bio resin overnight.
The gallery space was filled with a collection of wonky, crackly, broken, warped, uneven table objects from artists including Simon Hasan, Sofie Lachaert and Luc d’Hanis, Harriet Goodall, Nectar Efkarpidis, Alana Wilson and Julian Watts.
The show was stitched together by a collection of large format photographs by Sharyn Cairns of interiors, objects and old and new buildings expressing the perfect imperfect ideal.
So many curious people came along. After the opening, we got to know each other over dinner at Monster kitchen and bar. Like I said. Perfect.