When Miranda Skoczek thinks of home, Alain de Botton comes to mind. “I love what he says about home being the guardian of our identity. That really resonates with me,” she says.
Every one of the objects that fill Skoczek’s home – from antique furniture to travel mementos, family heirlooms and artworks by friends and artists she admires – has its reason and its place. “Every object tells a story. I can tell you where I bought it, why I bought it. They spark memories for me, and my paintings are also very much about places experienced and imagined.”
Skoczek lives in a rented art deco apartment in Melbourne’s Camberwell with her son, Harper. Despite it being one of the darker places she’s lived in, the Tudoresque flourishes and quirky layout appeal to her. “It’s a rabbit warren. People are always getting disorientated.”
The apartment is also the location of her current studio. “I vacillate between the two. I love the idea of having it at home and rolling in there in my pyjamas but it can become a bit much. Then it’s time to have a separate space again.” For now, her home life is such a large part of what feeds her practice that she makes the lack of separation work.
“I’m a colourist, first and foremost. Colour is my main compositional language and colour is fundamental to our experience of the world around us. Sometimes it’s like a fun park in here. Some people would find this too much.”
But Skoczek’s innate sense of colour and composition carries throughout the apartment. “I delight in creating little stories in every little section of the room. But it’s not that thought out; it’s very instinctive.”
A green faceted mirror hangs above a Kate Tucker ceramic on the mantlepiece; on the coffee table there’s an Alma Berrow ashtray atop the art books, and by the window a misshapen Georgia Morgan vase keeps company with Skoczek’s rowdy collection of houseplants.
Skoczek delights in putting unexpected pieces together. In the dining room, handpainted tiles by Tia Ansell are propped on the bookshelf next to a 2.4 metre gold Rococo urn from an antique store run by her friends Phillip Graham and William Tarlo.
Her art collection includes 20th-century European and contemporary Australian paintings, folk art and photography, all interchangeably hung, propped and rearranged.
“I like a bit of the absurd and the carnivalesque. But also somewhere to feel nurtured and at rest. I’m a woman of contrast. I like all those things to occur and be felt.”
Art has been a part of Skoczek’s life since childhood. Her most treasured works are commissioned portraits of her mother and aunt as children by Polish painter Jerzy Potrzebowski that her grandparents brought with them when they migrated from Poland via India. Portraiture is just one loose theme that can be traced through Skoczek’s collection, with works by Georgia Spain, Laura Jones, Yvette Coppersmith and Jacqui Stockdale also on display.
“I feel they do all speak to each other and feed off one another. I collect artists whose work I very much admire and wish I could paint like them. So I get the chance to be up close and personal with them, to study them and try to understand how the artist painted them.”
Since her first sold-out solo exhibition when she was studying at the Victorian College of the Arts, Skoczek has been reinvesting in the art of others. “I was always very committed. Whenever I had a successful show, it was really important to me to keep that wheel turning and to collect someone else’s work.”
Many of the artists in her collection are friends and fellow alumni, including Laith McGregor and Emily Ferretti, whose large-scale painting has just been moved from Skoczek’s bedroom to the living room, where it hangs between a watercolour by Adam Lee and one of Skoczek’s own vivid works. And there are more works still waiting to be framed and hung.
“Collecting art has always been an absolute focus and dedication for me. Although sometimes I feel a little regretful I might just be leaving my son a rug and an art collection and not something a little more useful, like real estate. I’ve always said I don’t care about a mortgage, it’s not important to me. And I’ve justified many a purchase because it feeds and shapes my practice and story.”
The ashtray is actually a ceramic sculpture by Alma Berrow, who transforms everyday items into intricate works of art. Photography: Dave Wheeler
Skoczek happily admits to being materialistic. “I am constantly drawing inspiration from my possessions. They do define me, and all of my things are dear to me. I’m a collector, not a fixed being – I carry everything from house to house.
Everything here is of significance to me. My home narrates my journey, depicting my past, and can even hint at my aspirations for my future.”
This is an edited extract from Collecting: Living with Art (Thames & Hudson, $79.99), by Kym Elphinstone.
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