The Spoken Object

The Spoken Object

The Spoken Object

Mario Bellini, Osvaldo Borsani, Cai Guo-Qiang, Zhang Huan, Rei Kawakubo, William Kentridge, Carlier Makigawa, Issey Miyake, Yasumasa Morimura, Sopheap Pich, Chiharu Shiota, Hiroki Tashiro, Ai Weiwei, and Yohji Yamamoto are some among the many avant-garde and ground-breaking luminaries in Gene Sherman’s collections of contemporary fashion, design, jewellery and art

Gene’s collections are constructed from a deeply personal base, describing each acquisition “as a journey of discovery and a suite of exploratory pathways potentially open to but not confined by the zeitgeist.” She collects widely, locally as well as on her travels purchasing directly from artists, jewellers and designers, galleries and stores. Brian, too, has contributed to her collections through anniversary and birthday gifts. At times she has directly commissioned pieces to varying degrees of success, recalling a delicate and intricate necklace by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota that would entangle itself in her clothes and hair. It remains a cherished possession and sits in her custommade jewellery cabinet designed by her collaborator and friend, interior designer Don Cameron. For Gene it’s not necessary for the objects to be ascribed a utilitarian value nor do the clothes or accessories need to be hugely practical, citing a Yohji Yamamoto skirt whose hoop is so wide that you can’t sit down in it. Edmund Capon, the former longstanding Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, laughingly recalled her being often bedecked with little bits of medieval ironmongery, such as little bird cages on her wrists by Carlier Makigawa. “I’ve accused her of being quite scary to hug,” he said.30

Unpredictable outcomes, experimental methodologies and innovation as epitomised by SCAF’s Fugitive Structures architectural series have been central tenets of Gene’s approach to commissioning and collecting, requiring, as she defines it, “the capacity to accept the metaphorical highways and byways of learning by trial and error.”31

She is not confined, for example, by a set of institutional criteria such as a museum’s acquisition policies or collection management processes, rather she selects works that have an original vocabulary and with which she has an immediate affinity. All these individual pieces are meaningful to her but their strength lies in their collectivity. They are carefully chosen and curated assemblages that tell not only Gene’s story but of her connection to the wider world. On visits to her home, I’m often shown the latest acquisitions and with the practised ease of a curator she is able to tell me the story behind each item. Indeed, Gene sees her personal collections as underpinning what she calls her ‘curated life’. The Latin root of the word curate means ‘one responsible for the care (of souls)’. In Gene’s case this care, the concept of tikkun olam entrusted to her by her mother, extends not

Carrying Memory necklace (2018) by Chiharu Shiota, Gene Sherman Jewellery Collection

Gene Sherman wearing Issey Miyake, wave pleats gilt skirt (A/W 1993)

Carlier Makigawa bracelet (2013), Gallery Funaki, Gene Sherman Jewellery Collection

Chikako Tatsuuma

Fifty-Eight Visits to Japan

My first encounter with Gene coincided with a visit to the Irving Galleries in Hargrave Street, Paddington, Sydney, in 1991. It was my fourth visit to Australia, and the first time the Japanese-born sculptor Akio Makigawa presented a show—sculptural work, mostly marble—with Gene.

I was completely stunned by Gene’s outfit. I had an impression of Australian fashion as very casual and colourful: colours of the Australian blue oceans, golden beaches, green rainforests and red soil. But as the director of the gallery that would eventually become Sherman Galleries (1986–2007), Gene cut a very distinctive figure. Her curly black hair and all-black attire spoke to a truly unique fashion sense in this Australian context.

“I love Issey Miyake,” Gene said to me. I was slightly taken aback to hear the name of this avant-garde Japanese designer whose profile, then, was not as well known in the West. Featured alongside her Miyake ensemble, Gene had chosen to wear a delicate sculptural bracelet. After enquiring for the designer’s name, I was delighted to learn it was the work of Akio’s Perth-born wife, Carlier Makigawa. At this time, Australia’s art, design and culture scene was rapidly evolving, attracting new talent from across the world, like Makigawa-san. I often think of Akio, whose early death sidelined his

growing renown in Australia. A few years after first meeting Gene, in 1995, I travelled with the Shermans through Carrara to visit him in Venice, there receiving firsthand experience of his wonderful humanity. Whenever I have the chance to see Akio’s sculpture Night Sea Crossing, located in Chifley Tower Sydney, it brings back memories of this time, with Akio, Gene and Brian in the dramatic scenery of Carrara.

It also marked the early years of my travels with Gene and, since then, we have religiously coordinated itineraries—Gene travelling from Sydney or Tel Aviv to Tokyo, and me travelling from Kobe to accompany her on appointments, art fairs and gallery visits. But, across all the years, it is always our shopping sprees in Omotesando I look forward to the most.

Gene’s packed schedule, prepared by her and an assistant, always made time for these shopping trips and, however busy her diary, Gene always carved out one or two hours to inspect boutiques. In that dramatically short window, we are able to make record-breaking reconnaissance missions to Issey Miyake, Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto (the stores of Japan’s leading designers were mercifully gathered in the one street!).

I remain awestruck by Gene’s quick decision making. I so clearly remember one

Pleats Please Collection, Issey Miyake, flat sneakers (S/S 2019)

Tone Vigeland, Untitled necklace (c. 1990), Gene Sherman Jewellery Collection

Alison Kubler

On Clothing as Art

Art and fashion are long-time collaborators and conspirators; the two disciplines, which might appear philosophically opposed, have been inextricably linked from the early twentieth century, from the fabric and colour experiments of Sonia Delaunay and the explicit collaborations between Elsa Schiaparelli and surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí. Is fashion art? The question is still debated. Undoubtedly the relationship between art and fashion involves the upsetting of the culture hierarchy. Where fashion has long been understood to be fickle, transient, and constantly in flux, art sets itself apart, as more considered, intellectual, even elitist. Art in philosophical terms aspires to a cultural longevity that fashion by its very nature seems designed to negate. The natural condition of fashion is to usurp itself, to change and render redundant what has come before. Fashion, too, has a commercial imperative whereas art, philosophically, does not, although in the twenty-first century we understand that art and fashion are economic systems equally. Art is a commodity as much as is fashion. What they both have in common perhaps is that their inherent value lies in the eye of the beholder. When art and fashion collaborate, there is the potential for economic and aesthetic outcomes.

I have often thought that a love of fashion does not preclude intellect. Dr Gene Sherman is perhaps the best example of this; her love for fashion is as considered as her love for art, about which she is considered an expert. I well remember meeting Gene some twenty-five years ago at Gold Coast City Art Gallery (now HOTA) where I then worked. She sort of floated into the gallery, resplendent in a spectacular black pleated ensemble by Issey Miyake with Carlier Makigawa bracelets (whose work was the subject of an exhibition if I recall correctly) like some elegant harbinger of all things chic, anomalous to the light and heat of the Gold Coast. I was to learn that Gene held an extensive collection of Japanese fashion, from Miyake through to Comme des Garçons, pieces that she wore extensively, in various ways, styling them differently each time. As a young curator, I had previously only seen Miyake in the pages of foreign fashion magazines1 but here was Gene wearing head-to-toe Miyake as though the clothes were art, body sculptures. I instantly saw the power of those garments to transform and resonate beyond mere clothing. I saw, too, the artistic genius of Miyake, a fashion designer whose work is held in prestigious private and public collections around the world.

Gene has subsequently gifted most of her collection to the Powerhouse, the lucky

Exhibition view of Issey Miyake, Making Things at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, 1998

Comme des Garçons, open harness vest (2019)

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus, netted camouflage blazer (Crazy Suits Collection, S/S 2019, Look 3)

Dick van der Vlies, Untitled cloak room tag bracelet (2008), Gene Sherman Jewellery Collection

Yuri Kawanabe, Coil bracelet (2002), Gene Sherman Jewellery Collection

Janine Abraham and Dirk Jan Rol, Rattan chair (c. 1950)

Shigeru Ban, CARTA Paper Tube Chair (2017)

The Spoken Object delves into the life and work of Dr Gene Sherman AM, with photography, and essays by curators, architects, museum directors, critics and academics—who, as friends and colleagues, offer an extensive overview of Dr Sherman’s life as a collector.

Dr Gene Sherman AM is one of Asia Pacific’s leading cultural figures—a scholar, a gallerist, a philanthropist, an exhibition maker, a public intellectual and a lifelong collector. Recognised worldwide as an advocate for bold offerings from the contemporary Australian, Asian and Middle Eastern art worlds, today she is known for championing equally virtuosic contemporary architecture and design. To mark the occasion of her final professional public project, her collections of contemporary fashion, jewellery, design and architecture are presented here for the first time.