Research - Office of Collecting and Design

The Office of Collecting is located in Las Vegas; it is an archive, exhibition and a studio space for artist Jessica Oreck.

On the website, it is described as 'A collection of collections, it is devoted to the diminutive, the discarded, the misplaced, the broken, the obsolete.

Included are objects both rare and common, precious and forgotten. Taken together, they illuminate the nature of value and meaning.' - officeofcollecting.com. 

This is something that strongly resonates with me and my project, I'm really interested in the idea of the forgotten and how we interpret value. For instance, when I go beach combing for sea glass and pottery, I am collecting lost and broken things that have no material value, or direct sentimental value to me - but it still feels like finding treasure or something precious. I am still trying to find out why that is exactly, but I think a big part of it is the mystery. My research into knitted objects which I have been photographing in charity shops also considers the forgotten but with more sentimental undertones, as they are hand made things created with love that are no longer wanted.

I discovered Office of Collecting on instagram where they post photos of the enormous collection, often arranged in grid-like formations. My favourites are the ones that are categorised by colour. The dark background makes the objects look bold and vivid while the use of multiples is really effective because a lot of the idividual items - like the clothes peg and the buttons - are quite mundane and might not look as strong on their own, so this demonstrates a successful way to elevate the ordinary. 

The collections appear to be mostly vintage objects that create a sense of nostalgia, especially with the childhood imagery of toys and dolls' house miniatures - it also reminds me of how human life is full of 'stuff' and we really are a material species. I want my work to reflect this sense of nostalgia and I hope it reminds people of little moments in the past from their childhood and loved ones.

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