Crimson Rose O'Shea

I find my inspiration for my work from many sources; travel, museums, private collections, literature, music, opera, the avant garde, the everyday. I am a collector of objects and experiences and I try to find ways to express my observations through my drawings, prints and creations. I am particularly interested in the museum and the ways in which as designers we can create our own taxonomies of design that can lead us to the creation of new material culture.

As a designer research is integral to my practice and I often draw inspiration from objects and artefacts that I feel a kind of personal affiliation with. As humans we love to collect beautiful things and because of the spectacular nature of the museum, a site wrapped up with entertainment and feelings of pleasure, it is natural that humans want to consume the objects that they encounter within it. 

When we view an object, we continue to consume it, if not physically but metaphorically, seeing is owning. The feeling of coveting an object that we experience is partly a result of our consumption habits. We desire strongly to own the object because it helps us to affirm or express our self-identity. In the museum context the object is, however, physically out of reach and the chances of us owning it are slim, this elicits and exemplifies the feeling of coveting that we might experience. 

The department store, as a coming together of material tangible goods with our own imagination, dreams and desires, mirrors the museum. Just as in the museum, viewing objects can take us on our own imaginative journeys.  Objects elicit feelings of coveting because they have the power to connect the dream world and our imagination with the tangible every day.