Artist Feature - JESSICA ORECK
Jessica Oreck, Office of Collecting & Design
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTIST JESSICA ORECK CELEBRATES FORGOTTEN OBJECTS IN HER TRAVELLING MUSEUM, THE OFFICE OF COLLECTING & DESIGN.
Jessica Oreck is a multi-disciplinary artist working in film, animation, collage, photography, miniatures, and large-scale installation. She is also a collector. Commonplace items that are often overlooked and forgotten are the objects that Jessica covets, and these objects are given a second life as they often make their way into her work.
Recently, Jessica has poured her efforts into curating and running a traveling museum devoted to these objects, the Office of Collecting & Design. Housed in a 42 foot trailer, the museum is a large-scale installation, part museum / part time machine, that is devoted to the diminutive, the forgotten and the obsolete. The museum is truly interactive as visitors are encouraged to open drawers, look in boxes, sort and peruse to their heart’s content. The result is both a living, sculptural installation piece and beloved community space.
We chatted with Jessica about her work in film and animation as well as her incredible travelling museum, The Office of Collecting & Design.
What most interested you in collaborating with Parkside to turn your work into a jigsaw puzzle?
We’ve had so many people ask for puzzles of our flatlay photos, I knew I wanted to make a jigsaw, it was just a matter of finding the right collaborator. I’ve always been a jigsaw fan, but I especially love the way that y’all make puzzles. The first one I did by Parkside was the original Micah Lexier. The quality of the pieces, the unique fits (you can’t accidentally put a piece where it doesn’t belong), your attention to detail made Parkside my ideal partner.
Can you tell us about your creative process when creating a flatlay image, like the image you created for Bits & Bobs?
I usually begin with a concept: sometimes a color, sometimes a theme, sometimes a story. From there, I run through my mental catalogue of the museum’s collections, pulling out items I know I want to include. I’ll set up a tray and gather the first round. Once I’ve got a small pile, I pause to take stock. Are there any sub-themes that have emerged, any colors or patterns or textures that stand out? That’s when I widen the search, poking through other drawers and displays to see what else might resonate.
When the group feels promising, I move into the studio and start arranging. As the composition takes shape, I circle back to hunt for missing pieces — a shade that balances the palette, or an object whose silhouette slots perfectly into an awkward gap. It’s always an iterative process.
Flatlay image by Jessica Oreck
Can you tell us more about The Office of Collecting & Design? Where / how did it begin? Where do you see it going?
The Office of Collecting & Design started as a brick-and-mortar museum in Las Vegas— a sort of nostalgia machine devoted to the tiny, the obsolete, and the forgotten.
I started this project five years ago as a side project: I wanted a studio for my animating and other work and I loved the idea of creating a museum of all the weird collections that I have. I worked at the American Museum of Natural History for more than 10 years and a lot of my inspiration stems from the magic of that place. But mine isn’t a museum in that sense — I often describe it as a nostalgia machine. It's a way for people, adults specifically, to find wonder and delight. I figured I'd make a beautiful space that I can work in and have it open to the public one day a week. And then slowly it worked up to three days a week, and then five days a week. And suddenly all I did was work on the museum.
Last year, I decided to move it into a trailer, spent 8 months building it out, and now we tour the US with our 42’ traveling wonderland. We started in spring of 2025 on the West Coast and over the next 4 years, we will slowly be winding our way across the States until we reach the other coast!
Jessica Oreck's puzzle titled Bits & Bobs available here.
Office of Collecting & Design Travelling Museum
Office of Collecting & Design Travelling Museum
Where do you source all the incredible items that are contained in the museum?
I have spent many delicious hours hunting at flea markets, estate sales, beaches, trash dumps, swap meets, other people’s grandparents' attics…. I adore the hunt. (One of my rules for the museum is that I won’t buy anything online to add to the museum, I have to find it in person.). We do take donations on occasion, but we’re sort of at capacity in the trailer, so it has to be something really special.
In addition to running The Office of Collecting & Design, you are also a filmmaker and stop motion animator. Can you tell us a bit more about that aspect of your career?
I started making feature films right out of college. I’ve made a handful of documentary and fiction films. They are all pretty obscure art-house titles, but the moving image is definitely my first language.
Back in 2011, I also started making stop-motion animations - mostly bite-sized educational content, including two series for TED (Mysteries of Vernacular and In a Moment of Vision), as well as several shows for a children’s network (which remain, sadly, unreleased).
I make mostly paper or object based stop-motion and many of the collections in the museum were seeded from props and sets used in my animations. Though my work spans disciplines, to me, the crux of it is crafting a charged atmosphere out of everyday elements, building something visceral and textured out of habitual action, unconscious gestures, and overlooked details.
The museum is really just an extension of that impulse. While it is wonderful to have all my objects at my fingertips for possible animations, I have found that it is infinitely better that I get to share the joy of these weird, tiny collections with other people.
Office of Collecting & Design Travelling Museum
I always love to ask this… Who are some other artists, in any medium, that inspire you?
Ooo, that’s a great question. I think probably my earliest influence was seeing Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie when I was in elementary school. It scratched some itch that I didn’t know I had. Looking back on that moment, I can draw what feels like a direct (if not particularly straight) line to the work I make now.
Nicholson Baker might be at the top of the current list though. Also Charles and Ray Eames, David Attenborough, Prokofiev, Claire Denis, Chantal Akerman, Jean Painleve, Karel Zeman, Jorge Luis Borges, Sidney Bechet, Joni Mitchell, Kevin Young, Alexander Calder, Jane Goodall, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frederick Law Olmstead, Margaret Mead, the early work of Olga Tokarczuk, a bunch of Dutch and Eastern European filmmakers. Oh my goodness, I could spend all day on this question alone. I also find endless inspiration in folk traditions and anonymous makers — the kinds of people who made utilitarian (and non-utilitarian) objects with a kind of unconscious poetry.
Do you have any exciting projects in the works that we can share with our community?
We host a series of clubs, swaps, and exchanges that connect a global community of curious minds and kindred collectors through small, meaningful mail exchanges — each one a reminder that wonder travels well. I like to think of it as part secret society, part postal playground.
We have a monthly Treasure Club where members score a tiny treasure from our museum's collection, delivered right to their door.
We also have a Decoder Club: we crafted the ultimate decoder “ring” – the kind you always dreamt of as a kid. Once you receive your Decoder (free with membership signup) you’ll be sent a coded message each month – it might be a password that unlocks an exclusive giveaway of curious treasures, a delightful poem to savor, or the beginning of a digital adventure that will lead you down an unexpected path.
And others! It brings me a lot of joy to create these clubs and postal exchanges.
Flatlay image by Jessica Oreck