Karie Higgins photographed in her New York city apartment. Photo / Babiche Martens.
Zoe Walker visits the stylish apartments of creative New Zealander Karie Higgins. On the gritty street below, it's traffic, graffiti and rubbish, but beyond a black-painted door plastered with the word "Presidential" is the orderly calm of jeweller Karie Higgins' Bushwick apartment. It is railroad style - long and narrow with windows at either end.
Entry is via a small kitchen that
looks out to the outdoor area of a cocktail bar below. Lush plants sit against wooden floors and a red-brick wall is a feature in the kitchen and bedroom, with skulls, scented candles and jewellery popping up throughout the apartment.
There are also pieces that showcase a sense of humour: framed artwork by 7-year-old Seattle artist Yung Lenox, who draws rappers, a watercolour of PBR beer by Higgins' partner Lee Gibson, a framed Damien Hirst print sitting on the wooden floor, a "birdhouse bookshelf" by Thing Industries, a company founded by Higgins' friends and fellow Kiwis Bridie Picot and Matt Smith.
In the small lounge area in the middle of the apartment, a piece made by Gibson for Higgins' birthday with the words "Always be Knolling", a reference to the New York artist Tom Sachs' manifesto in which he tells his workers to put away everything that isn't in use, group all "like" objects, and align or square all objects to the surface they rest on. In other words: be neat and organised.
