WORK IN PROGRESS

Lexi Kerr & Ana Garcia

3.02.23 - 25.02.23

​

Weavings by Lexi Kerr and buttons by Ana Garcia.

​

Life is filled with decisions, both large and small. 

What did you choose to have for breakfast today? The same muesli with vanilla yoghurt and a dash of honey? Black coffee with a piece of buttered toast? Rice with an egg and sardines?

It seems that some choices hold more weight, while others, like breakfast, only have the power to dictate when our lunchtime will be that day. 

 

Lexi Kerr and Ana Garcia witnessed the fact that embedded in our ways of living and working are preconceived value systems which dictate whether something is more important or successful than another. Sharing stories about their practices with each other, it became clear that both were at the crossroads of regeneration and experimentation. Reminiscing together about their third year at university, they did not know what they were making at the time, nor why, and have seemingly returned to that same conclusion today. In a way, relegating their current state of productivity to the breakfast aisle. 

 

However, through ‘Work in Progress’, they witnessed how the spark of making and their passion for their practices grows through spontaneity and openness to exploration. Re-encountering works and threads of thinking with hindsight released them from the preconceived ideas that trapped them. Only when acknowledging and accepting what we have seemingly always been drawn to and bringing it to life in the present, does peace and progress come. Sometimes we may not be aware of what we are making or whether it will be ‘worth our time’ in the end, but maybe the question is not ‘Why?’ but ‘Why not?’. It is not always about what you make but that you are making.

 

Far from polished, neat and tidy, ‘Work in Progress’ is just that. It is your thoughtless reach for coffee in the morning but also the blissful satisfaction from the first sip. It is the unexpected but welcome stroll through the city after your 11am appointment fell through. It is the threading of the fiftieth needle or the pulling of the hundredth thread. For Kerr and Garcia, this exhibition is another step closer to embracing with wonder, the small decisions, the unexpected encounters or repetitive actions, the process itself, that forms an integral part of one’s life, identity and practice. 

(Exhibition text by Ana Garcia)