SHELF LIFE
When life was literally stilled during the pandemic, long hours spent at home made us look at the spaces and objects around us with new focus. Many of us arranged and rearranged our mantelpieces, kitchen shelves and desks, adorning them with gatherings of objects that brought us comfort – trinkets from foreign travels, gifts from cherished friends, treasures inherited from relations and mementoes from parties past. Some shared photographs of these pleasingly curated arrangements on Instagram, where they are known as ‘shelfies’. But for a small group of British artists it was business as usual: they had long been painting and drawing carefully assembled vignettes of objets trouvés and decorative antiques, their work united by a shared appreciation of vintage pieces.
‘It’s about capturing memories,’ says ceramics collector and artist SJ Axelby, who is known for creating colourful, finely drawn mixed media work inspired by her own collections as well as beautiful interiors she admires. ‘I always bring something back from my travels and my shelves become time capsules,’ she says, likening them to
