Since February, artist Hetain Patel has been gathering hobbyists from across Britain. Quilters, cosplayers and nail-art innovators. Mosaicists, ceramicists and chain-mail linkers. Doll modifiers, wood turners, scrapbookers and yarn bombers. Collectors of postcards, figurines and carrier bags.
Patel’s exhibition, Come As You Really Are, is a wittily choreographed display of a dizzying 14,000 loaned objects. A long countertop performs as a battlefield to Warhammer figurines, lead soldiers, Star Wars fighters and other tiny fantastical warriors. Across them, Cindy dolls and their dogs stride like Biba-clad colossi. A tiny diorama dressed with greenery from a model railway displays modified acrylic nails, micro origami and thimble-sized ceramics. Quilts, weavings and embroideries hang in obeisance around a Ford Escort clad in swirly carpeting.
