J. Elster’s pop-up space in Tribeca is billed as a “gallery and store,” but that’s underselling it a bit; the entire space feels like an art installation.
Tables of leather goods, artwork on the walls, a t-shirt rack here, a rack of couture leather wear there, and an (epic) photo of David Bowie fill the dimly lit space; it seems like there’s something interesting in ever corner. Jennifer Elster is an artist, filmmaker, designer and photographer and she’s fully representing in every nook and cranny of the room. There’s a piece in the window that she said she loved because of it’s “raw, savage nature,” and that really sums up her design aesthetic.
The collection consists of accessories, mostly pouches of varying sizes. All hand-made in NYC, they’re at once finished and quite beautiful, but also rough around the edges; this isn’t the commercial finish you’d find on leather goods at a department store. There are masks and a couture collection of raggedly cut pieces, but the pouch collection, especially the monochromatic set, is the most wearable. The rest of the space is devoted to her artwork and a t-shirt collection inspired by a project she’s working on with Yoko Ono. Another aside, she’s also a filmmaker, and her Channel Elster has clips from her work that are haunting but also bracing. Her “Is Death Finite” clip hits like a freight train of raw energy, that same rawness that is represented throughout the store and gallery space.
The J. Elster pop-up space is located at 75 Leonard Street, Tribeca/NYC.
Words and photos by Jason T. Jaskot