Cover An object and its evocative beauty find intersection in Bjanka Objekt’s pieces and imagery
An object and its evocative beauty find intersection in Bjanka Objekt’s pieces and imagery
1 / 1
Bjanka Objekt’s precise curation of objects shows how one can create spaces that are both restrained and deeply felt
Approach curation as both method and inquiry, and you find Clare Pabalate, a unique content creator with an extraordinary instinct for taste. Pabalete is the founder of Bjanka Objekt, which she describes in her own words as “a Philippine-based curator of objects found in the wild, specialising in eclectic, narrative-driven curiosities and design pieces.” It is a practice that centres on the deliberate orchestration of objects within rigorously bounded visual systems, where each element is positioned not to please the eye but to structure perception. The result is an atmosphere of haunting beauty, an aesthetic that emerges from control rather than excess, from the precision of placement rather than the accumulation of things.
Pabalate’s compositions operate as studies in spatial reasoning. Every object is treated as a piece of evidence within an argument about balance, rhythm and relational form. Through this method, she redefines display as a process of calibration: form and void, weight and interval, material and light. What is often read as minimalism is, in her case, an ethic of attention, the refusal to allow ornament to obscure encounter. Her imagery makes full use of chiaroscuro, an artistic technique that uses the interplay of light and shadow to create depth, drama and dimensionality in composition.
Her work advances the notion of curation as authorship. By employing visual restraint and calibrated spatial tension, Pabalate constructs environments that are neither didactic nor decorative but durational, spaces that invite slow observation and sustained cognitive engagement. This temporal dimension of looking transforms curation into a mode of critical thought: a field where arrangement becomes analysis, and where beauty, disciplined into form, acquires the quiet force of philosophy.
More from Tatler: The design intelligence of plants, according to Wonderplants
Above Found objects that are both locally and globally sourced
Above This image composition’s chiaroscuro is arguably a modernist interpretation of techniques employed in paintings by the Dutch masters
Found objects that are both locally and globally sourced
1 / 2
Her work also occupies a liminal condition, existing between documentation and imagination, between object and aura. Each arrangement becomes a threshold, neither purely aesthetic nor purely anthropological, but a suspended moment where perception hesitates. This liminality gives her compositions their tension: they seem simultaneously alive and archival, transient and permanent. In this in-between state, the viewer encounters not merely objects, but the quiet metaphysics of display itself.
Tatler spoke with Pabalate to investigate how her curatorial methodology re-conceives arrangement as a mode of critical production, an operative system that employs order, precision and spatial tension to evoke affect and perception beyond narrative or architectural constraint.
Above This scenes could have easily been in imagery of Taylor Swift's Folklore album
Above Finding an object in itself is an art form, akin to a hunt
This scenes could have easily been in imagery of Taylor Swift's Folklore album
1 / 2
How does formal rigour shape the emotional and perceptual register of Bjanka Objekt’s compositions?
I use emptiness as tension. By turning negative space into structure, I create silence sharp enough for the object to speak entirely for itself.
In what ways can object curation function as a form of visual authorship rather than secondary mediation?
The difference lies in intention. Every object I choose and position reflects how I want others to experience it. Each placement turns the arrangement into a visual statement rather than a product lineup.
It’s my way of letting viewers see through my eyes, beyond function or price. The final scene becomes a personal statement, turning the image into an expression.
See also: Celebrate in red: Old Boy Bakery’s Anton Miranda and his elegantly modern tablescape
Décor artfully arranged in a vignette
1 / 5
How does the calibration of scale, materiality and spatial tension generate affective responses?
I work through sensation. The closeness of a frame or the texture of a piece can pull you in before you know why. I treat the space between objects as an invisible current.
These shifts in size, texture and distance create emotion without a story; they make you feel something purely through the eye.
What role does restraint play in enabling open-ended interpretation?
Silence invites dialogue. Restraint creates a visual that draws the viewer in, asking them to engage on their own terms.
In the absence of excess visuals and fixed stories, I leave space for personal meaning to surface. The less I give, the more room there is for others to respond; silence becomes the conversation.
Above Wood as a vessel in this shape is interesting, as one may associate barrels with wood more than jars
Above This sculptural driftwood is striking
Wood as a vessel in this shape is interesting, as one may associate barrels with wood more than jars
1 / 2
How can curatorial practice create immersive atmospheres independent of architectural or narrative frameworks?
Immersion emerges from composition rather than environment. Through framing and control of negative space, I build self-contained worlds where the surroundings dissolve.
What remains is an emotional field the viewer can step into, seeing only what I see, yet interpreting it in their own way.
NOW READ
Constructing intimacy in bedroom interiors with Deanne Lim
Objects of affection: a look at Ella Pangilinan Miranda’s furniture
Designing with leopard print: bringing the new neutral into your home
