Err

This is a really beautiful project:

Untitled (High Heels), Qing Li, Lina International Shoes Ltd, Huizhou, China

For his new project, Err, artist Jeremy Hutchison contacted various factories around the world, and asked if one of their workers would produce an ‘incorrect’ version of the product they make every day: in doing so, the functional objects became artworks.
“I asked them to make me one of their products, but to make it with an error,” Hutchison explains. “I specified that this error should render the object dysfunctional. And rather than my choosing the error, I wanted the factory worker who made it to choose what error to make. Whatever this worker chose to do, I would accept and pay for.” […]

Hutchison has kept all of the correspondence with the factories as part of the project. As might be imagined, many of the initial emails express confusion. Shown below are two of the emails he received, including one with the apt enquiry, “are you joking, sir?” […]

Even more intriguing is some of Hutchison’s later correspondence regarding how the individual workers felt about the project. Lee Ming, the Chinese worker who destroyed the chair, is said to have initially tried to “destroy it with a big stone”, before using a cutting machine. The person writing to Hutchison on behalf of Lee Ming then reports that “the feeling is great he said after he cut the chair piece to piece. […]

Err will be exhibited in London as part of a group show at Paradise Row gallery, which opens on July 8. More info on the show is here, while info on Hutchison’s other projects can be found at jeremyhutchison.com.

Paradise Row is fast becoming my favourite place.