The State of Things: 3 x crafts

Every thing has its own time, as the saying goes. Every object also has its own story. Everything we surround ourselves with says something about who we are, our own time and our history.  It is this that is referred to in The State of Things - an exhibition in three parts focusing on Swedish crafts and the people who design and make them.

In three different narratives, the questioning of norms, dissolving of boundaries and conquest of new expressions that has gone on for several decades are given shape; and present-day interest in both everyday objects and crafts that tell stories,  that go beyond functional demands, is displayed.

The State of Things also prompts questions about the relation of objects to space and context.  It is said that every thing has its place. In the exhibition, many objects have been given a new place, been exposed to new surroundings which we hope will open possibilities for new encounters and discussions.


Gallery 3: The State of Things 1989–2009

The exhibition, The State of Things 1989–2009, directs the viewer back to twenty eventful years in the history of Swedish crafts. The six designers and craftspeople in the exhibition have captured different aspects of the development of Swedish crafts and design.

Zandra Ahl, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, Anders “Lagombra” Jakobsen, Anders Ljungberg, Anna Sjons Nilsson and Per B Sundberg – all have influenced and triggered discussions on the styles and meaning of crafts, in quiet or more high-pitched ways. The exhibition contains a selection of their productions between 1989 and 2009. Recently filmed conversations with the participants presents their views of their own work and of the developments within crafts and design that they have been part of.

The starting point of the exhibition, 1989, coincides with the last exhibitions shown in Konsthantverket (located at Kulturhuset at the time), where during the 70s and 80s, presentations of both Swedish and international crafts and design were shown on a regular basis. In the controversial exhibition, Ingenmansland (No Man’s Land) in 1989, ten women textile designers and potters called for a dissolution of the boundaries between design/crafts and art.

During the intervening twenty years the question of the position of crafts and design has remained, but much has also happened in these decades. Which actors, objects and discussions have had an impact and set their stamp? When has development taken that “leap” which can be felt in our encounter with something unfamiliar or unknown, which we don’t really know how to relate to? And how do we “see” these objects today?

The participants in The State of Things 1989–2009 belong to different generations and their respective “breakthroughs” have occurred during different periods and cultural and social climates. The prerequisites for their presentations vary as the time period represented in the exhibition for some of them encompasses a great deal of their work whereas for others, it shows only a small segment. Taken together, the participants reflect the major developments over twenty years that give us the material for vital discussions about crafts and design today.

Gallery 5: The Image of a Home

Many things could be said about people’s relationship to their things and their home. Objects pass through everyone’s life. They stop for awhile – sometimes forever. We buy, inherit and receive things which acquire greater or lesser significance. We collect things and dispose of them. We decorate and organize ourselves for a life together with all of our possessions; we open our doors and display them. Sweden may be the only country in the world where we make a tour of other people’s houses, where we expect to be able to look into others’ private nooks and crannies.  The home and what we choose to fill it with is a story that interests all of us: it is part of our identity.

This exhibition is about the things we call crafts, which traditionally are strongly connected to the home and our everyday needs. Thirty-four crafts people, designers and artists are represented in The Image of a Home and in diverse ways they all challenge stories about the home and everyday objects. The challenge might be shifts in function, scale or expression or refer to something that seems recognizable which takes an unexpected turn. Sometimes the focus is the story itself, taken from history, everyday life or the subconscious. The Image of a Home takes place in different rooms in which things meet and converse and hopefully prompt new stories. Welcome.

Participants: Pia Aleborg, Anton Alvarez, Ann-Sofie Axelsson, Sandra Backlund, Sofia Björkman, Lotta Björn, Maria Boij, Magdalena Dziurlikowska, Mats Eskils, Frida Fjellman, Folkform, Karin Gustavsson, Petter Hellsing, Helene Hortlund, Pernilla Jansson, Thorleif Johansen, Linda Karlsson, Gunilla Kihlgren, Knits by the Metre, Annelie Krantz, Fredrika Linder, Pontus Lindvall, Åsa Lockner, Haidar Mahdi, Eva Mozard, AnnaSofia Mååg, Gustav Nordenskiöld, Kjell Rylander, Sam Stigsson, David Taylor, Mona Wallström, Annika Åkerfelt.

 

 

Foyer 3: Don’t say anything, I think I understand

It may look familiar, but maybe not? Look again. Let your gaze and your mind pause for a while, or make a detour. The works in the exhibition Säg inget, jag tror jag förstår / Don’t say anything, I think I understand are bound together by the depiction of stories, situations and experiences that transcend the everyday or the immediately recognisable. What emerges here is confidence in the image, the handicraft and the individual story as a means of communication. The starting-point for the participants in the exhibition is not theory, but rather they have opted for working methods in which prominence is lent to impulses and inner images that have emerged in the course of the working process.

Dreams, imagination and story telling appear as intrinsic features of the work with craft’s traditional materials and techniques. Instead of emphasising the utility and everyday aspects, the works present a craft that turns its gaze towards the absurd, the unknown or the private, the secret. The title of the exhibition, which is borrowed from a poem by Eva Runefelt, delineates an unmediated and immediate understanding or identification.

Many of the exhibited works display an intention of making the encounter with the viewer open and unbiased. The craftspeople have created ambiguous relationships between objects, forms and materials. Structures are constructed or seem to fall apart, motifs are repeated – sometimes in an almost manic way – and forms mutate. The objects and images appear to be uncertain. This kind of ambiguity may be considered characteristic of craft on a general level; the field has always resisted simple, formulistic categorisation and clear-cut demarcation.

The exhibition’s participants are three students and five alumni of the School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg: Anna Bärnskog, Jennifer Forsberg, Jenny Klemming, Jennie McMillen, Saga Norberg, Ida-Lovisa Rudolfsson, Jimmy Stambrandt, and Anna Unsgaard. They work in textile, ceramics and jewellery.


The State of Things is produced by Kulturhuset