A conversation about the art of making with Joseph Gardner

Executed/Undone invitations us into the stressed terrain of creation — that house between making and unmaking, between the impulse to refine and the intuition to let go. Curated by stylist, artistic director and Vogue Dwelling’s model editor at giant, Joseph Gardner for Craft Victoria, the exhibition examines the artistic course of as an ongoing dialogue of selections: to construct, erase, repeat or pause.

Throughout works by greater than 50 artists and makers, Executed/Undone reveals the numerous kinds that course of can take — from items that lay naked their building, uncooked and experimental, to people who conceal their making beneath polished surfaces. Collectively, they ask us to look past the concept of “finishedness” and think about how intention, iteration and doubt form each object and maker.

InteriorsAu editor Cassie Hansen spoke with Joseph Gardner in regards to the concepts behind Executed/Undone.

Cassie Hansen: As a stylist and inventive director with a powerful editorial background, how does your publishing expertise affect the best way you curate an exhibition like this?

Joseph Gardner: All through my expertise in publishing, one of the vital vital and satisfying issues has been discovering new makers and getting to put their work within the pages of {a magazine}. I’ve all the time actually loved this a part of my work and have discovered it very rewarding and humbling to listen to from makers what an impression this sort of platform has had on their artistic careers.

Our artistic expertise in Australia is so unbelievable, so with the ability to champion the work they do looks like a extremely essential a part of the job. To work with Craft on this challenge has been an honour – we each work to create alternative for Australian artists and makers – house for them to be seen and heard.

CH: You’ve mentioned the present is about these intuitive moments when a maker decides to construct, erase or let be. What have you ever personally realized about your individual artistic course of via curating this exhibition?

JG: My artistic course of comes very a lot from a spot of emotion, and I all the time attempt to create a selected feeling. Over time I’ve been refining a visible recipe for stability, being delicate to my environment, feeling the feel of issues, the form and visible weight of every piece strongly influences how an area feels for me.

The method is so intuitive, it’s all about getting the position of works and the destructive house in stability – I do know when it’s proper as a result of I really feel a way of calm.

Via translating my curatorial course of into a bigger exhibition house, I’ve realised how central structure is for me, I discover the linking of linear areas to be very satisfying.

As a result of I’m primarily based in Sydney and Craft is in Melbourne, a lot of the choice means of artists and works, has been accomplished over Zoom and through electronic mail. It has been such a shocking and thrilling expertise attending to lastly see and maintain the works in particular person – totally understanding their scale and the feel.

CH: The exhibition strikes between works which are uncooked and unresolved and others which are extremely refined. How do you hope audiences will interact with this selection?

JG: To me, all of the works within the exhibition are completely refined. Executed/Undone is about exploring course of and finishedness. I’m within the second a maker decides that their work is full – it’s one thing that I all the time take into consideration in my very own work and I think about one thing that each artistic wrestles with. I hope the exhibition opens up dialog for the viewer, and encourages contemplation round what we think about to be perfection.

There’s a various mixture of artists and makers within the exhibition and materiality was an essential issue for me. I wished to showcase a wide range of supplies – and illustrate a way of concord via the visible choice. It’s a mixture of artwork, craft and design, and to me, every of them can interaction.

A very powerful widespread thread all through all of the items is that there’s a humanness to every work. You possibly can sense the hand of the maker all through.

CH: Executed/Undone sits inside Craft Visionaries 2025, which celebrates experimentation in modern making. How do you see this exhibition contributing to or difficult present conversations round craft and design?

JG: I really feel that persons are actually within the tactility of the issues that encompass us, and they’re intrigued by course of. Executed/Undone offers pause – as a substitute of a provocation, or problem to the dialog, I hope that experiencing this exhibition offers house to mirror on how we really feel when surrounded by these objects, and to take a second to rejoice the worth of course of.

Collectively, with Craft the exhibition offers a platform for over 50 artists. Craft is certainly one of my favorite locations to find works in Australia, to share this house with them looks like an honour – we will rejoice expertise and make a constructive contribution collectively.

Executed/Undone is on present 14 November 2025 to 7 February 2026 at Craft Victoria.