- This is what I imagine the inside of your mind looks like
by the way. I imagine that it's just 8 million tiny
boxes filled with their perfect thing.
I'm Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura.
And this is Show & Tell, where we get in touch with
collectors and other people with interesting stuff who are
stuck at home and ask them to show us and tell us about
their things. And so, I am incredibly excited to welcome to
the show, Jessica Oreck, who is a collector, an artist,
a filmmaker, and who has many weird and strange
little objects. So, without further ado, Jessica, welcome
to the show.
- Thank you so much for having me, Dylan.
I'm really excited.
- I am excited that you're here.
Can you tell us a little bit about who you are
and what you do?
- I'm a filmmaker, like you said, I'm an artist.
The thing that appeals to me about the type of collections
that I am really invested in...
Is that they are sort of valueless. They're objects that
are throw-away because they're so ubiquitous.
- Well I'm excited! Okay so what's the first thing
you want to show me? I'm so, I'm so interested.
- I feel like the dice collection is really
the most obvious. Because it's the biggest.
Um, it's the thing I've been collecting the most.
- So those are them in the, behind you,
I see there stacked up.
- Yes. So, the only reason I pull these out,
they're not, they're not that special but these are the dice
that started it all. They were from my aunt.
Not only was I charmed by how small they were, but they are
also have a mistake in that this side doesn't have any pips
at all.
And, I was so
just astonished that they could have made a mistake
like that, and forgotten to put pips on a die.
And I was just utterly charmed.
- Is that what those are called? Pips?
- Pips. Yeah.
- I didn't know that "pips" was a real word.
- There you go!
- Pips.
- My favorite type of dice are the ones that are, um.
- Are those all filled with dice?
- Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They're... it's all dice.
- Oh my God.
- So, the dice I love are the ones where the pips are off.
And I love, like when the pips look a little drunk.
When you're like, "Whoops!"
What were you doing when you had, when you made this?
So that, you know, they're just a little bit off.
I just love how imperfect they are. How handmade they are.
How
you can just
I don't know. It's like you... this... you can just
feel who made this.
I love the ones you can't play with.
Um, and I also love the really, really small ones.
Like, these were a gift from a friend in Russia.
And they're just really... they're so tiny.
- Wait, do you have any dice that are not, uh,
six-sided dice? Do you have any...
- I do. I only have very few. Because I don't love new dice.
I like the old ones. And so the only set of old ones that
I could find that were not six-sided, are these.
They're a form of poker dice. And they're made out of...
- Oh, I love those dice. - Yeah.
- Those are so beautiful.
- They're made out of ivorine. Which was sort of
a fake ivory that they did in the- that they came up with
in the 1920s because it was a way to make it look expensive
- Cool! - but was very cheap.
What about, uh, things that you are currently
on the lookout for, at flea markets? What...
Anything you are hunting for, especially? Or...
- Right now, because I'm focused on this series,
and this series is very much about getting objects
to represent ideas. And so I'm looking for very specific
things. Like a tiny, tiny, miniature suitcase.
Or a miniature coffee grinder. Or a calculator that's
less than three inches long. These are the things
that I end up looking for.
- Can you explain this series? Can you just kinda
give a quick...
- So this series is very short animations, stop-motion,
object animation, about the history of plants that have
shaped human society. The way it works, is that I build
a box and then the box is separated into these perfectly fit
compartments.
- This is, this is what I imagine the inside
of your mind looks like, by the way.
I imagine that it's just 8 million tiny boxes
filled with their perfect thing in this, like,
never-ending hallways and doorways, and I imagine
this is what your museum will look like
when it's finally done. It will look like
the inside of your mind.
- Yes.
- [Laughing] - I mean one of the things
that I collect, yeah. One of the things that I collect is
like tiny little trays that hold things.
You know, I mean this one has just one thing in it.
But, like, look at how perfect this tray is.
Don't you just, like, want to fill it with things?
- What would you put in there?
- I already have a plan. I have a collection
of color-coordinated tiny animals. So...
- What do you... How are they color-coordinated?
- Here is the drawer of white tiny let...
I don't know, white animals.
- And this is fun. This is, I like this.
So, it seems like you have a different criteria
for collecting than some people. Like you're not,
certainly it's not about value.
How do you decide what goes in the collection
and what doesn't?
- Part of it is that I refuse to do anything online.
Part of it for me is the hunt. Part of it for me
is going to a flea market or finding it
in somebody's attic.
And wondering about where it came from.
Wondering about its provenance and its origins.
And
I'm just fascinated by that.
- And it seems like, for you,
with the dice, at least, it's about the totality
of them all together. It's not about any one dice.
It's about all the dice. Or... both?
- I mean, I definitely have favorites. I have favorites,
for sure. But to me, all of the collections
are very much about them as collections,
not about the individual objects.
- Okay so you started with the dice.
That was your first thing. What came after?
What was another collection that you began?
- I have a collection of three-legged animals.
Because, once again, you know, I wouldn't want
anything too perfect.
Actually, you and Michelle and I collected
this one together. But,
you know, this guy just has, he just has three limbs.
And this guy just has three limbs.
And this guy, this is one of my favorites.
I got this this guy in Nepal. And they were just
he was just for free on the street.
Look at how sweet he is!
- It's not really [Laughing] It's not something you
it's definitely not something I would see one of,
and be like, yup. I mean, there's got to be
dozens of these. I mean, like, I mean like, I guess
once you have two, you realize, oh this is a thing.
But, why? What is it?
- I mean. - What's the...
It's the imperfections? That's the thing?
- I love the imperfections but I clearly,
this guy was really loved, you know. He was loved
so much that he lost a limb. And I love the way that,
when I display them, they have to
use each other for support.
- What else do you want to share with me?
Is there other stuff that's in that same vein?
Do you have stuff that's like, is totally different
from that that you've collected?
- So I have quite a collection of tiny little spoons.
I don't. I mean probably, it's not very well displayed
right now, but. They're all, they're all different
all different types.
- That is a very. That's a kind of an aggressive spoon.
- Just so sweet. They're so. I mean, I love anything
that's tiny.
- Yeah.
- The series that I'm working on now,
uses a lot of materials from my collection.
Like I had to sacrifice one of my tiny spoons.
To put into the animation.
- Was it destroyed in the animation?
- It wasn't destroyed, but. At the end of the animation,
there's something that's been built. And so it's now
part of that.
- You sort of seem like you're drawn to these, kind of
poetic objects. Like, lyrical, playful objects.
Those little toys, those little dice.
These are all things that have a
a kind of playful quality and seem to hold
in and of themselves, like, like
their past life is clearly - Yes.
- demonstrated in them. What else fits into this,
into this category?
- Well, I collect
vintage, sort of paper ephemera
from every place that I travel.
- So what do you do with all this stuff?
'Cause 'cause you collect it but then
it sounds like it becomes something else.
- I make collages. They're all postcard-sized 4 by 6.
And they are collections within themselves.
I made a series in Canada that were all, um,
made out of old stamps.
- So these are ripped off of
like, letters you buy - yeah
- from flea markets? - There was a guy that was
selling stamps but he was selling, you know,
stamps that were worth something. And these
aren't worth anything. And so, he just had a bag
that had been ripped off an envelope.
And it was 25 cents for the bag of hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of stamps. I mean,
the bag was huge. This was a series I made
in this bin. I call them postal dominoes.
The idea was, you send them around the world
and then, eventually, they'd all come back together.
And can be fit together into a giant puzzle
working with dominoes.
- So Jess, do you have anything you want to promote
or any, anywhere you want to send people?
- Um, sure. Yeah, my plan, before the apocalypse
was to rent a space in a strip mall, and open
a small museum. Uh, sort of a museum/library.
Um, not in the traditional sense of library.
But, um, called the Office of Collecting and Design.
Um, and it would be, my film studio in the back.
But then, in the front, would be a museum that would be
open to the public of all of my collections.
If you're interested in the museum,
our Instagram is @OfficeOfCollecting.
Um, also if you're interested in the collage postcards,
our Instagram is @from.where.i.am.
Also, if you're interested in my films, you can, um,
check out my website, MyriapodProductions.com.
- Well, Jessica, thank you so much for joining
me today and showing us all this amazing stuff you have.
- Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for having me.
It was a pleasure.
- Thank you for watching. If you have someone
that you think should be on Show & Tell or you,
yourself, have stuff you want to show and tell us about.
Uh, please, leave a comment. And be sure to
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