The surrealist, unconventional and offbeat practice of Gary Card has been fine-tuned across a twenty-year career spent working with the likes of Comme des Garçons, Dover Street Market and Vivienne Westwood. This summer, the renowned artist and set designer is taking his eclectic vision to Plaster Gallery in Soho for an immersive installation titled Gathering Dust. An ode to objects lost and found, Card cast his mind back to all those unrealised ideas and projects that never came to fruition, amalgamating in a chaotic, fantastical vision of his studio.

The first instalment of an ongoing programme curated by Plaster founders Milo Astaire and Finn Constantine, the duo will continue to invite artists to temporarily revamp the gallery and store in their image. Card’s part junk-shop, part kaleidoscopic playground brings together archival and new works alongside ambiguous vintage objects. Upstairs, a series of caricature busts sit on plinths in neon hues, from afar seemingly made from ceramic, but up close they prove to be made entirely from masking tape, bringing Card’s reality-bending vision to life.

Ella Joyce: Can you walk us through the meaning behind the title, Gathering Dust?
Gary Card: It made me laugh! It’s a poke at the art world and the idea of your sell-out show – the complete opposite of the optimism of a summer exhibition. But there’s also the dual meaning around the accumulation and “gathering” of stuff – books, ornaments, trinkets, artefacts, that end up sitting in my studio or house eventually gathering dust, forgotten and impossible to clean. There’s something funny about re-discovering all of these objects and re-placing them within a gallery space divorced from their origin.

In a way, it’s dedicated to a lifetime of collecting and the physical weight of seeing your own history. It’s also about re-assessing these items that we hold onto but no longer pay attention to, and showing them to others. The voyeurism of being able to see into someone else’s life, but also the vulnerability of the individual to show that side of themselves.

EJ: How did your collaboration with Plaster come to be?
GC: I’m lucky enough to call Milo and Finn friends, and I’ve worked with Milo in the past, namely our Hysterical project at Phillips in 2019. We’ve been talking about doing something ever since, and I’ve been admiring the energy of Plaster Magazine for the past few years. It really felt like the kind of work that I was starting to make, so it was a natural fit for us to start working together.

“It’s dedicated to a lifetime of collecting and the physical weight of seeing your own history”

EJ: Where did the vision for this installation come from? Any key reference points?
GC: As a set designer, you’re often looking outwards to understand your clients, but this time it was about looking inwards and asking myself, “What do I like?”. The show is a heightened version of me, so it’s been about looking at my archive and collection, old sets and projects. Residues of old ideas, looking at what I surround myself with and thinking about what makes me unique. So the work is going to be erratic, with lots of disparate elements put together, but then I’ve had an erratic life!

EJ: When people step inside, how do you hope the space makes them feel
GC: Liberatingly hectic, claustrophobic, comic yet unsettling. Every nook and cranny of the gallery will be covered in material. Ultimately, I want to give people things to discover and to feel the humorous melancholy of it all.

“I want to give people things to discover and to feel the humorous melancholy of it all”

EJ: Your art has such a singular style and vision. In general, where do you find your inspiration?
GC: Apart from the obvious places, IRL I like to start local, so I’m constantly looking around my neighbourhoods of Brixton and Hackney. It sounds trite to say, but I’m inspired by stuff on the street and you’d be surprised how interesting some of the clusters of junk can be. Shapes and materials that aren’t supposed to be together form interesting compositions. So lots of ideas from discarded material, some of which you’ll see in the show!

Gathering Dust will run at the Plaster Store in Soho until August 23rd, check out Gary’s Instagram here.