Cj Hendry Fills a New York Gallery with Pastel Beads and Playful Rules
The interactive exhibition 'Pastel' invites visitors to take off their shoes, wear custom socks, and wade through thousands of beads to create custom jewelry.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Cj Hendry presents the 'Pastel' installation at Salon 94 Design in New York
- Visitors remove shoes, wear custom socks, and step into a pool of thousands of pastel beads
- A poster offers a search-and-find challenge alongside string for handmade jewelry
- Upstairs features hyperreal drawings and enlarged painted bronze sculptures
Stepping into Cj Hendry's 'Pastel' begins with a small change in gallery etiquette. Shoes come off, custom socks go on, and visitors climb over the tiled edge of a shallow pool filled with thousands of pastel-colored beads. Some sit along the perimeter and sift through them by hand, while others step straight in, pushing through a shifting layer of tiny flowers, smiley faces, characters, objects, and odd little forms. At Salon 94 Design in New York, Hendry has built the installation around physical participation, inviting visitors to collect beads and take part of the experience home.
'Pastel' starts with a bead hunt, but it watches as everyone invents their own game. A poster beside the pool presents line drawings of selected beads, turning the installation into a loose search-and-find challenge. Some designs appear everywhere, while others take a while to surface. Visitors receive two lengths of string, enough to make a necklace, bracelet, or charm, with plenty of room to improvise beyond that. Once the search begins, the scale of the experience becomes apparent as a single sweep of the hand reveals dozens of possibilities before burying them again seconds later.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Cj Hendry's interactive installation reflects a growing shift in contemporary art toward participatory spaces where audiences drive the experience. By establishing simple rules paired with open-ended creative freedom, the exhibition lowers the traditional intimidation of gallery spaces and fosters spontaneous social interactions among complete strangers.
What begins as a match hunt quickly becomes far more personal. Designboom visited 'Pastel' ahead of its public opening and observed how quickly visitors developed their own systems. Some searched by color, building strings around pale pinks or translucent blues, while others chased a subject, collecting flowers or New York City motifs like hot dogs and taxis. One person might spend ten minutes searching for a single bead from the poster while the person beside them ignores the checklist entirely and gathers whatever catches their eye.
Artist Cj Hendry supplies a few rules and leaves plenty of space around them. While the poster offers a possible goal, the room quickly drifts away from completion as curiosity takes over. The bead a visitor suddenly decides they need becomes more important than the one originally searched for, and the experience shifts according to whoever happens to be digging beside them.
"What does it take to make a room full of adults start playing with strangers? The answer at Pastel is surprisingly simple. Give them a shared field to search through and enough freedom to decide what they value."
Cj Hendry
As the pool fills with people, the installation becomes unexpectedly social. Strangers start asking each other what they are looking for, holding up beads across the pit because someone else was searching for them. People compare half-finished strings and show off strange finds, turning brief exchanges into an unusually relaxed gallery atmosphere.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The custom socks help set that shift in motion. Pulling them on feels almost ceremonial, signaling that the usual gallery behavior has changed as people crouch, sit on the floor, and wade through the work with both feet. The physical effort of moving through thousands of loose beads adds to the fun, shifting attention constantly between one's own hands and nearby visitors.
Upstairs, Cj Hendry's familiar visual language returns in drawings and sculptures, including enlarged versions of forms appearing among the beads below. The official presentation brings together hyperreal drawings with painted bronze sculptures, extending those motifs into tangible objects visitors can scoop up and collect.
Source: designboom
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