In our era of impermanent, unlovable junk, there’s something life-affirming to these drawers full of engraved spoons, rubber stamps and spools of thread. And admission is free; that’s nice, too.
May 27, 2021
SMILING DOLL HEADS. Mismatched buttons. Thimbles and beads, barnacles and bottle caps. If you crossed a junk drawer with an art museum, the result might be the Office of Collecting and Design.
Don’t be fooled by the official-sounding name. Tucked in a quiet corner of Commercial Center, the Office of Collecting and Design is the project of Jessica Oreck, an artist, filmmaker, and animator and an avid, globe-trotting collector of unusual odds and ends. The OCD (the acronym is coincidental, Oreck says) is a lot of things: a clubhouse, a place to unplug, a gallery, a nostalgia generator, a reading room, a prop house, and a studio. Basically, imagine an antique shop where you can play and where touching the merchandise is highly encouraged.