These days, the job of a gallery technician is a many and varied one. But the skills of Skarstedt Gallery’s team were given a thorough testing when just days before the opening of their Rosemarie Trockel show, a major Greek collection had agreed to loan the artist’s rarely seen Untitled (1999). This deeply disquieting sculpture consists of a life-sized new-born clinging precariously to a giant ball of shaggy brown wool, which is nearly two metres across.
The architect Tom Croft was on standby to remove the gallery’s window before it transpired that the piece in fact divided into four sections and so could enter the building without undue disruption. But after they had reinstated the shaggy sphere, the team then had to channel their coiffing skills to tease the strands of yarn over the joins. “It was like doing a giant comb-over,” declared the chief technician Jack O’Connor. “We could open a salon.” Take note, President Trump, if you last long enough for your UK state visit…