Still; with movement

Still; with movement

Studies of an artist.

Ophelia Mikkelson curiously arranges still life objects of contrasting natural shapes and textures.

Deciding on her subject, a purple tulip, she then places the tulips into a vase. Taping her canvas to a wall and working with a paintbrush, she paints the outline of the tulip beside a reinterpretation of a worn 'tribe' stump.

Greta van der Star documents the process.

The Church and The Museum — a moving study on still life.

“…Because in designing a real room for someone you try to make it theatrical, but when making a room for theatre you try to make it ‘normal’…”

The above text is a quote saved in Notes on my phone from an interview with designer Alessandro Mendini in issue #19 of Aparatamento. I found the tension between his two design approaches something to consider and be played with: an idea to extend on. To bring this concept to life, I asked friend and collaborator Ophelia Mikkelson to create a still life set up in her studio using WORN Store’s hero textures: straw, wood, ceramic, silk. I then asked one of my favourite women Greta van der Star to film Ophelia as she dismantled her initial still life set up to slowly created a new one. This film begins to explore possible answers to the questions: Where do the moments of ‘theatre’ exist within our homes? How does theatre (or film) create a lived-in domestic setting?

In honor of WORN store’s dedication to making objects that are both personal and masterful, I thought the way Mendini ended his quote was also fitting to this project; “You’ve got to have an area in your house that looks like a church and a part of your house that looks like a museum.”