Håndværk Bookazine No. 9

The theme of Håndværk Bookazine No. 9 is interiors. It invites us inside the studios and workshops where the things in our homes take shape. We meet glassblower Alexander Kirkeby, who graduated just a few years ago and has already made a name for himself in the international design scene; recent graduate, ceramic artist Heidi Lillevang, who experiments with stucco; and stucco worker Peter Funder, who has 35 years’ experience.

In the article entitled ‘In Collaboration’, architect Desislava Lynge says, ‘An interior can be magical, whether it is minimalist or chaotic or has books and art from floor to ceiling, as long as it reflects the people who live there.’ She adds that if she were to point to a single key feature, apart from the life inside a house, it would be the influx of daylight.

Light is also a key topic for lighting designer Fie Paarup, who has launched successful production of unique curtains sewn from vintage and surplus textiles. Rigetta Klint met with her to talk about curtains and the life inside a house. Meanwhile, textile is the natural choice of material for Sia Hurtigkarl and Tanja Kirst. Each in their way, from their respective points of view and with very different expressions, they both work with woven rugs as their medium.

In addition to rooms, furniture, curtains and rugs, stucco, ceramics and glass, the upcoming issue of the bookazine maintains a focus on how we become who we are and how we engage with and speak about ourselves, each other and our practices.

We are invited on a trip to Öland to visit a very special school founded in 1957 by Carl Malmsten and his wife, Siv Malmsten. Now, as then, the school teaches ceramics, textile, wood and landscape architecture. We are also introduced to Professor Andreas Nobel, a cabinetmaker and designer who teaches in Sweden’s finest cabinetmaker’s programme at Malmstens in Stockholm (a campus at Linköping University). He says, ‘You will underestimate any subject area if you approach every field in the same way and if you fail to acknowledge that mastering a given field takes many years of training. For example, it takes lifelong practice to attain a high-level mastery of philosophy. Similarly, it takes many years of practice to attain a high-level mastery of crafts, design or art.’

He questions whether it is possible to attain a sufficient grasp of both areas in a single lifetime, to have philosophy inform art or design, and vice versa. And yet, it is common to see scholars from a wide range of academic fields speak with great authority about art, design and crafts.

‘When you hear and read these comments, you need to bear in mind that what they are addressing is not the subject matter itself but the philosophy of it,’ he argues. ‘To a philosopher, art is a philosophical problem; to the artist, art is a possibility, while designers and craftspersons look for solutions.’

In the bookazine, we also meet ceramicist Louise Gaarmann, golds applied artist Sarah Hurtigkarl and architect Erik Brandt Dam, among others.