Objectivity: the art of useful things. A new exhibition in the Servants’ Hall at Harewood House reviewed by Justine Brooks (@JustineFBrooks) …
There’s something fascinating about the mind of the collector. The compulsion, the obsessiveness, the attention to detail, the itch that needs scratching. I know a lot of collectors, several of them in my own family. People who collect art, coins, Danish brooches, Judge Dredd comics, chairs, shells, bicycles, houses.
Often the motivating factor for collectors is value, particularly future value. There’s validation in increased worth in a sort of ‘well, you see it all paid off in the end really’ and you wonder if this sort of thing ever crossed David Usborne’s mind.
David Usborne is also a collector. A collector of objects. Very very ordinary objects. His very large collection of ordinary objects is currently being exhibited at Harewood House, a house which is home to a great many collections of extremely valuable and often extraordinary objects – Old Masters, fine porcelain, Chippendale furniture – that sort of thing, and in a clever contrasty way, this show brings together egg slices, flour shakers, oars and cornets in a curatorially triumphant fashion that highlights the sculptural beauty of a myriad range of ostensibly practical items.
If you want to know a bit more about the exhibition, there’s a short film on YouTube in which David Usborne talks a little about his collection
As well as being a collector, Usborne worked as an architect and graphic designer before becoming a history of design lecturer and teacher, so his aesthetic pedigree certainly isn’t in question. And as for collecting, well it seems that he has been doing that from an early age.
It’s certainly not just the objects themselves that are fascinating, it’s the way they’ve been grouped together, displayed and lit that makes this exhibition so beautiful. The way over 100 odd and disparate things come together in eight poetically themed groups, casting shadows on the walls is quite wonderful. Usborne calls them ‘accidental masterpieces’, they’re sculptural, intriguing and ultimately compelling.
In its simplicity, Objectivity is a beautiful exhibition, mysterious. Like a great big guessing game.
All Photos courtesy of Bethany Clarke