Students From Gothenburg University Use Design to Explore Contemporary Global Issues At Stockholm Design Week
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The recently-concluded Stockholm Design Week saw 12 students from the Gothenburg University’s Academy of Design and Crafts explore some of the most pressing issues of our time through handmade objects in a joint exhibition titled “A Second Ago.” The exh
Students From Gothenburg University Use Design to Explore Contemporary Global Issues At Stockholm Design Week
The recently-concluded Stockholm Design Week saw 12 students from the Gothenburg University’s Academy of Design and Crafts explore some of the most pressing issues of our time through handmade objects in a joint exhibition titled “A Second Ago.” The exhibition was featured in “Greenhouse,” the student section of the Stockholm Furniture Fair, which forms the core of the most important week of the year for Scandinavian design.The exhibition included two tables, three lights, and a mirror. There were also three sets of vessels, one of which was stacked into a plinth, a pair of chairs with curved seats, a map, and an interactive doodling book that relies on the user drawing shadows for the given illustrations. According to the Stockholm Design Week, each object was created to represent a global or personal issue that the particular student felt was the most urgent and deserving of our attention. The issues explored through the designs ranged from body dysmorphia to anthropocene. Interpreting the brief creatively, some students tried to capture elements of human behavior in their work, while others looked at everyday issues like body shaming. Hanna Crondahl, for instance, used in her work “Himlakropp” rotating light to represent the temporary nature of the world around us. Referencing the solar system «of a fictive future,» Crondahl combined a stationary glass globe pendant lamp with two rotating powder-coated steel bars. The curved bars incorporated mirrors within spheres that, in turn, rotate on their axes. Through the piece, Crondahl tried to express, as described in her own words, the fact that “nothing can be captured for eternity, and the world we are familiar with today will not exist forever.” Milena Fae, another student whose work was featured at the exhibition, produced vessels made from sugar that dissolve into water when no longer needed. Fae wanted to invert the fact that objects normally have a longer life span as waste than in their original function, to question how we should view objects in the future. Another student to produce a set of vessels was Danielle Helene Goule. Her ceramic pieces, piled one on top of the other into a totem and displaying a single oyster shell on top, paid homage to the achievements of early women who played an important part in advancing civilization by producing vessels to transport food and water. Body shaming and transformations of a human body were also important themes that guided some of the works displayed at the exhibition. For instance, Sofie Wallenius’s mirror was partly concealed by a solid form to allow the viewer to control how much of themselves they can see reflected. The project aimed to fight against the image of an unattainably perfect body and encouraged the viewer to accept their own body. Similarly, the pair of wooden chairs made by Johanna Denecke used highly-curved seats that appeared to be shrinking away from their frames to reflect on the awkward phase between childhood and adolescence when the body often grows out of proportion. Works of the students displayed at the exhibition also reflected on how man’s interactions with the world around him change the society he lives in. Eve Liisa Kubinyi's map of the ground we walk on, for instance, encouraged the viewers to open their eyes to the street under their feet, as discarded objects, textures of the materials under foot, and patches of nature can tell something about our behavior and the society we live in. On a similar note, Ruth Elvira Gilmour’s hand-crafted porcelain vessels, displayed against textiles digitally printed with a collage of microscopic views, invited the viewers to explore the distance between materials when seen out of the context of time and scale. Gilmour hoped to spark a debate about humans’ short-sighted tendencies that have pushed the world toward the Anthropocene era through her work. The most interesting part of the projects was that the students made each element of their work themselves in the university workshops, using soldering irons, pottery wheels, woodworking tools, and a variety of other processes. Speaking about their projects, Crondahl said, “We built everything ourselves. When you study design, it's important to know what goes into actually making something.” The only digital project displayed at the exhibition tried to reinforce the importance of shadows in our understanding of time. Made by Yi-Hwa Chen, the project displayed an interactive booklet that invited the viewer to draw and re-draw the shadow on a set of minimalist illustrations of objects and architectural scenes as the light source changed. As rightly pointed out by Chen, “Our appreciation of shadows has been lost over time. They were previously a useful indication of the time but became redundant when replaced by watches, and then electronic devices.” Commenting on the diversity of the projects and techniques used by the students, Crondahl said, “It's a light and furniture fair, but it's also nice to see that the craft can also be visible. They fit together well, and each project highlights each other. Not everybody is just making a metal chair; there's a range of techniques and styles that work together here.” The Stockholm Design Week, which was launched in 2002, is held annually in February and is a meeting point for buyers, architects, designers, press, and influencers from all over the world. It is open to anyone who is interested in exploring the new trends in Scandinavian Design. Every year during the Design Week, with over 200 events buzzing across the city, Stockholm becomes the perfect place for everyone connected to, or interested in design to meet and thrive, discover new impulses, broaden their network, and get inspired. This year the event was held between February 4 and February 10. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more
