HANGING TOGETHER
Andrea Harari, owner of the jaggedart gallery, on the Crafting a Difference exhibition: an uplifting collaboration between five galleries, displayed in a beautiful Marylebone townhouse, which can be viewed in 3D online
Interview: Ellie Costigan
The Crafting a Difference exhibition sees five London-based contemporary art galleries, including your own jaggedart gallery, showcasing diverse works at Shiro Muchiri’s Marylebone creative space SoShiro. How did the collaboration come about?
We’ve all known each other for a long time. We all do Collect, which is the international art fair organised by the Crafts Council. We started chatting and sharing our experiences of lockdown—what we’d been doing, our thoughts—and we all had the same concerns surrounding the realities and the difficulties of getting people to a gallery, keeping things alive and appealing to the public. So we said, well, why don’t we work together? We came together as a group called Crafting a Difference—because that’s really what we want to do, collaborate to find the best way of presenting artworks to give them bigger exposure. Peter Ting of Ting-Ying Gallery knew Shiro, they started the conversation and she was very welcoming about hosting the first show. We have another project coming: watch this space.
You’ve found some creative ways to carry on through the pandemic, such as offering virtual exhibition tours. Is that something you might continue to do post-Covid?
It’s been a really difficult time, but people have been so imaginative in adapting to the situation. We hired a company to film and photograph everything. Through the video, you can explore every single room, go up to a work, press on it and you will get an image with all the details. I was sceptical, but I have to say it’s very good. Being able to do virtual appointments and virtual tours has been fantastic. We have the potential to reach an international audience and you can explore the exhibition almost in real time. I liked the idea that you can linger over the pieces that interest you, because that’s what you want from an exhibition—to do it at your own pace, pick out the things that are interesting to you.
I do think the virtual appointments are going to stay, but I don’t want it to replace the real thing, especially for the kind of work that I show. You really need to experience the shadows, the textures, the shapes and materials. It’s very difficult to offer that in a virtual way. It’s a huge sacrifice to keep the gallery open but the importance it has for the community is great and I don’t want to lose that—not only for my community of artists, but for the people of Marylebone. It’s not only about buying. People come in and talk. We have a chat, they look at the works and they’re inspired, moved. That’s the whole point of this.
I’m sure the experience of putting together the exhibition, to do something ‘real’, was an enjoyable part of the experience. How was it working with the other galleries under Covid conditions?
It was great. We started talking in early July, the five different galleries—jaggedart, Cavaliero Finn, Ting-Ying Gallery, MADEINBRITALY and Vessel Gallery—and the curator Brian Kennedy. We all wanted to work together, because being a gallery owner can be quite lonely. You’re so immersed in the day-to-day that sometimes you lose the broader picture. Together we can go much further. We all come from different backgrounds and we have different experiences and views, which complement each other’s. It’s been a lot of work, but we’ve had a lot of fun too.
The exhibition hosts more than 200 pieces from more than 70 artists. How did you go about creating a show that seamlessly incorporates such diversity?
Shiro’s house is stunning—every corner is beautiful. Each room has a different personality, a character, which Brian used to inspire him when putting the show together. For example, the main living room has these incredible giant cacti, so that room is very organic, with glass and ceramic pieces. Another room is all black and white, and he has kept it monochrome. Some of the rooms you can’t put anything on the walls, so we had to somehow hang the pieces without touching the walls. The ideas for each room were Brian’s, but there was a dialogue. We’re all very respectful. We’re all professionals, we’re all experienced, so there was great teamwork.
There is a balance of works from across the galleries, which is what makes it so fun. Ordinarily I hang pieces against those that have the same spirit, because they are all artists that I represent; in this context, there are works from very different artists in the same room and it’s wonderful to see that contrast. It looks fantastic.
The Creating a Difference collaborators, including Andrea (second from left), Shiro Muchiri (third from left) and Brian Kennedy (fourth from left)
The uniqueness of this exhibition is that it has some traditional gallery spaces and some that are more domestic in feel. You rarely get to see what an artwork will look like in that context until you get it home. Was that part of the thinking behind the show, to inspire viewers on how they might incorporate pieces into their own homes?
The top two floors are the domestic part of the show. Often people think that art has to go on a grand wall in the living room. This shows you that every single room in your house is as important as the next. For example, there are beautiful works in the kitchen, which is a space where people don’t often think to put art. I think one sentiment we all share is how important it is to surround yourself with beautiful things—or things that are beautiful to you—which comes through in the exhibition.
I imagine that’s all the more important at the moment, with most of us confined to our homes…
It really has highlighted the importance of that. It’s important to wake up and look at something nice. It’s not about monetary value, it’s about how you present it in your house, how you curate your own space. You don’t have to buy everything new. Especially now that we are in our houses all the time—you want to feel that it’s peaceful, quiet. A place that gives you happiness. It’s your haven.
How have your artists experienced this period?
It’s a very personal thing. Many of the artists in the first lockdown had a very difficult time. First of all, there are the economic concerns, but many have children and families so they’re doing home schooling, but others have more time to be at home and to be in the studio to work. For many it’s been a time for creativity and I think it will be interesting to see how this period manifests. It’s a testing time and I think artists process situations and what is going on around them in a different way to most mortals—they have a different sensibility, they feel things in a different way and I think that will eventually appear in the works. Though you will not be able to see it right away, it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of this period.
Creating a Difference
Until 30th April
SoShiro
23 Welbeck Street, W1G 8DZ
Take the Crafting a Difference virtual tour