Hella Gerlach: Collagen

Collagen—the body’s most abundant, binding protein—provides the theme for Hella Gerlach’s fifth exhibition at Acappella. A new series of suspended, felted forms hangs from the ceiling like soft tissues or internal organs. Made from hand-felted wool, some sourced from animals the artist encounters daily, these hybrid bodies sway with our movement and sometimes with their own, aided by smart-learning joints that let them twist together like a living helix.

Abstract yet deeply material, the works evoke connective tissue: a substance that gathers bodies, systems, and sensations. Touch is central to Gerlach’s practice, shaping both her sculptures and her ways of communicating with family members. Visitors are invited to engage tactilely too, guided through silent instructions passed from artist to gallerists to audience.

Coloured, heated, washed, and formed by hand, the sculptures hover on elastic cords, their fuzzy surfaces inviting contact. They propose connection—between bodies, materials, and viewers—through a quiet, generative, tactile form of glue.