TAKE A TOUR OF OUR
SUPERSELF WINDOWS

To celebrate the launch of SUPERSELF – our explorations into the future of feeling good – our windows team at Selfridges London unveiled a mood-boosting line-up of installations designed to reflect how you can discover the best version of yourself.

From the miniature fruits and vegetables in our ‘Grow Get ’Em’ window to the hand-blown glass pebbles in the ‘Have a Safe Trip’ display (shown below), crafted by Adam Aaronson, an independent glass artist based in Surrey – the team stayed true to the Selfridges sustainability commitments under Project Earth, working with a range of planet-conscious materials and processes to reflect the feel-good SUPERSELF theme. The team also commissioned two rising talents in the art world – waxwork artist Juliette Minchin and sculptor Elise – to create exclusive artworks for our iconic windows.

So, join us for a tour of the windows and discover the artists’ inspirations and creative processes behind their displays – and what makes them feel good.

On her live waxwork demonstration in Selfridges Window 20

Somewhere between stage and sanctuary, the Selfridges window becomes a laboratory where I prepare my waxes – colour, mix, melt and drape over the frame. I hope that these performative moments will immerse passers-by in my repetitive artistic process and transformation of the material.

On why time passing, rituals and rebirth inspire her

The flow of time is intrinsic to my work; it has the power to transform or make a work disappear. I draw a lot of inspiration from superstitious sacred forms and rituals in different cultures – from fertility dances to talismanic objects and protective tattoos. I have always loved architecture in transformation: the skeleton walls on construction sites before they are covered with their ‘skin’; the large fabrics that protect historical monuments during restoration; the remains of a building after a fire…

On her relationship with her work-in-progress

I am inspired by the juxtaposition of opposites: of stability and fall, of presence and absence, of birth and disappearance. My work is like a ruin where some parts were saved, and others partially deconstructed – like the feeling that you have the day after a party.

On what makes her feel her SUPERSELF

Lighting candles, reading anthropological collections, the unexpected and constantly transforming myself.

Please check back soon to watch the recording of Juliette's live wax working demonstration in Selfridges Window 20. 

On her materials

Materiality is neither object nor idea, but somewhere in between, seeping into and out of everything. It oozes with references, sticky and tricky to define, straight out of a citrus-scented freshener or all-you-can-eat buffet: wet-wiped; pebble dashed, portable blended.

On what makes her feel her SUPERSELF

MeTime and TimeOut. [The titles of Elise’s sculptures]

On the inspirations behind her SUPERSELF sculptures

Processed materials slither along a sinewy conveyor belt of ideas. They bend, bulge, bubble up. A body is splayed, spread out like landscape, pressed against glass. A drip drops, sticks to the floor. Body parts are also heaped spoons of processed sugar, encoded as iCal entries of events never attended at places never visited. But an image search reveals a generic urban scene, smiling faces, a screenshot of a perfect sandwich discarded in junk mail.

Here’s the thing, the fibreglass stench of lost referents while waiting for a delivery distracts from the time it takes to place the order. A deliberate deflection. Archaeologists found the empty wrappers from your latest meal deal embedded among fossils, pulpy, porous, and ossified. Shrink-wrapped and shiny, the body’s absent steel armature glimmers beneath fragile plaster skin.