Amber chair, Jaeuk Jang
The Savage Mind is a show featuring seven students from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design of Stockholm at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during Milan Design Week April 14-19 2010.
Ivar Björkman, president of Konstfack explains the idea behind the works of young talents in the show: “The age that we are living in stretches back to the origin of human beings, irrespective of whether we are modern or not. In his book The Savage Mind, French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss explains that there are no fundamental differences in how we think between primitive peoples in the Stone Ages and ourselves nowadays”.
Amber chair by Jaeuk Jung creates experiences by designing time with the object in a conceptual way. Enclosing a vintage chair, in this case Michael Thonet´s design classic ‘chair No.14’, in amber makes the retro chair into a strong contemporary piece of furniture. It conserves the object, whose historic memory we can enjoy.
Quercus Suber, Nicolas Cheng; Double Exposure, Hanna Frostell
Nicolas Cheng with his project Quercus Suber reinterprets the traditional appearance of cork; creating an organic, poetic transformation of the material by treating it as a natural, protective skin. Pounding the cork into a paste makes it flexible and it can be shaped by hand around other materials such as glass. The fragility of glass and the crafted warmth of the cork evoke a unique tactile quality between two contrasting materials.
Double Exposure from Hanna Frostell make us think about the appearance of materials as well as the personal and social signals of textures. Her fabric Double Exposure incorporates a detail used in the draping of silk dresses to create an industrial woven cotton for interior fabrics. The fabrics are inspired by the way trompe l’oeil paintings realistically depict the nature of material within another place.
LCD vases, Simon Klenell
The Savage Mind also features the work of Simon Klenell, who utilises the conventional value of glass as the starting point for the series of vases entitled LCD. ‘Glass is uncontrollable demanding material to work with’ says Klenell. When blown into its final form, it has the ability to appear unadulterated.” The shapes of the LCD crystal vases are hand-blown and cut by the designer. The pieces are then heated in the kiln to become fluid again. By simultaneously heating and cooling the glass, LCD captures a new quality of glass that is forever in movement.
In between lighting, Karolina Naystörm; Heavy-Duty, Axel Karfors
Karolina Nayström’s playful and elegant creation entitled In between is a pendant floor lamp which seems to hover in space just above the floor. The designer takes inspiration from the power of geometry to create illusion – in both nature and man-made objects, especially scientific. In between floor lamp is made from laser cut circles connected by transparent nylon thread. An object is built from air, with the shape appearing from the in between spaces.
Axel Karfors explores the association of history and a living environment through a piece of furniture – in this case 1970s Sweden. “In the past, Swedish villas used to have ‘heavy-duty’ living rooms in the basement where solid pinewood furniture was used. Upstairs was the ‘real’ living rooms with finer furniture made with exotic woods and fabrics. Eventually the upstairs living room lost the ‘real’ quality as it became more popular to spend time in the basement.” explains Alex Karfors. Heavy-Duty furniture features exaggerated pieces made in pinewood for the living rooms of our time.
Stanza, Keisuke Kawase
Stanza is a cabinet and room divider with ‘a movement of silence’ designed by Keisuke Kawase. The conventional doors and walls of a classic cabinet are displaced and transformed to create an open structure with this design. Rotating boards that support the entire construction at the same time provide freedom for the user to adjust the unit to meet his/her needs and capture the imagination to create an individual space.
‘The Savage Mind’ runs from April 14-19 2010 at Spazio Rossana Orlandi, via Matteo Bandello 14, 20123 Milano
Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
