Tradecraft: Marty Chafkin from Perfection Electricks

Recorded on Sept. 18th 2019 in front of a live audience at Brooklyn Research. Harriet Salmon, host of the Craftsmanship podcast, interviews Marty Chafkin from Perfection Electricks. Perfection Electricks is a professional fabrication shop offering consulting, design support, fabrication, and repair services. They have worked with artists, museums, galleries, producers, and creatives on a diverse range of imaginative projects. Founded by Marty Chafkin in 1984, the business started as a special effects company primarily building specialty electronics and control devices for television, film, and theater scenery and trade-show displays. In 1998 Perfection Electricks first entered the world of art, working with Ann Hamilton on her exhibition "White Cloth" at the Aldrich Museum. Since then they have continued to build strong working relationships with artists, museums, galleries, and corporations. In over fifteen years of art fabrication Chafkin and Perfection Electricks has been involved in a diverse range of projects ranging from lighting and automation to the fabrication of large scale metal works. Tradecraft is a collaboration with the Craftsmanship podcast. In this series we present a unique spotlight into the world of fabricators, specialized technicians, artisans, and masters of their trade. These individuals are often artists in their own right but work tirelessly behind the scenes to build, engineer, and realize technically demanding projects for the artists and institutions that contract them. Their technical skills are unmatched but they also possess the unique ability to translate artists’ concepts and visions into reality.