KADK Afgang Sommer’17

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This weekend is the last opportunity to see the exhibition of the projects and work of this year's graduates from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation … a densely packed show of the talents and the phenomenal imaginations and skills of the students who have just completed their courses in Copenhagen.

There are profiles of the students and photographs and descriptions of their work on the KADK site.

The exhibition ends on 13th August. 

KADK, Danneskiold-Samsøe Alle, Copenhagen

Kunsthåndværkermarked - first day

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Today was the first day of the major annual craft market at Frue Plads in Copenhagen - Kunsthåndværkermarked - with ceramics, glassware, jewellery and textiles. Organised by the members of the association of Danish crafts - Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere - the market continues on Friday and Saturday 11th and 12th August. 

 

Kunsthåndværkermarked

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Not in the normal location on the large square across the north side of Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen - because of excavation works there - but for this year on the other side of the church.

This is an opportunity to see - and to buy - some of the very best of Danish craft. And the weather seems to have improved just in time.

Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10-12 August

 
 

Finnish design day at Design Werck

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Ulla Koskinen, Johanna Vurio and Mads Arlien-Søborg lead the discussion

On the 2nd June there was a major event where the companies and designers from Finland who have been showing in the gallery were at Design Werck to talk about their designs and about the work produced by their companies.

There was a good general discussion about Nordic design that was led by Mads Arlien-Søborg - the design expert from DR TV in Copenhagen - with Johanna Vurio, CEO of the furniture company Nikari Oy, and Ulla Koskinen, editor for the design magazine ASUN - I Live.

People introduced themselves and talked briefly about the work produced by their companies and the strong common theme that emerged was that each had a distinct and unique and interesting story to tell about how their companies had been established but, and much more important, what came across in simply through talking about this, was their passion and commitment to good design.

This should not be surprising but it was obvious, as so often, that it is this background story that is not just a 'unique selling point' but is the best way to help potential customers understand the product … the way for the designer or manufacture to get across, in an interesting way, why the design is important and can be half the battle to justify the price - important in a competitive market - and is also the best starting point to explain the merits of the work … to explain how a piece works or explain why one material rather than another was chosen or why something was made in a specific way.

Of course a customer can be overloaded with information but equally many of the important factors about a product might not be immediately obvious when it is seen in a crowded shop display. It is important to get the balance right and important to include at least some of this back story on packaging.

The discussion moved on to the idea of marketing Scandinavian design generally as a way of pooling resources but also as a way of strengthening the image of the region for it's design.

The well-attended discussion session was followed by food from Finland and that was a fantastic opportunity to chat with the designers from Finland and with the teams from the different companies.

Design Werck, Krudløbsvej 12, Copenhagen 

 

Smaller Objects at the Swedish Embassy

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Many of the pieces in the Smaller Objects collection have been designed by the Swedish architecture and design studio of Claesson Koivisto Rune but there is also a Swedish stoneware bowl, some glass from Italy and objects designed and made in Japan.

What unites all the objects is not just the very high quality of the materials used but the pieces have that hall-mark of design at the highest level in that form, function and material are balanced. In fact, it is that balance of form, function and material that makes these objects minimal in the most obvious sense … in that you realise as you look at and then you hold the objects, it would be very very difficult to add anything more or take anything away without destroying that balance. These objects are refined - not in the sense of being polite and cultivated - though they are that too - but in the sense that the design has been refined or reduced down to that point where it looks and feels right. Good minimal design is about reduction … not about going straight for the basic.

These objects also demonstrate that incredibly important aim for the best design when actually you realise that although the piece appears, at first, to be primarily about appearance and style … what, in fact, is crucial is the obvious and careful consideration of how the pieces function to make even an everyday task more enjoyable. 

The Japanese notebook is a good example where you realise that here is something that not only is beautifully made - with the experience that comes through a manufacturer who has long-established craft skills - but how someone uses a notebook has been carefully reconsidered so that even turning back a pre-cut tab to mark a place becomes a simple pleasure. That probably sounds precious or pretentious but one clear reason for - maybe the justification for - designing something that is better - or is more beautiful or is better made in beautiful materials - is that the finished object should enhance life every day when doing everyday things.

Smaller Objects.com

 
 

editor's note:

the images are set to scroll through automatically but holding the cursor over an image should halt the change to the next image and should reveal information about the object

Hay for 3daysofdesign

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For 3daysofdesign, the design company Hay have taken over Lindencrones Palæ on Sankt Annæ Plads (Lindencrone’s Palace on Saint Anne’s Square). So going to this event was an opportunity to look around a pretty amazing building but for Hay it gave them dramatic settings for their furniture, lighting and kitchen and tableware. One large room had the Result Chair and Pyramid Table … maybe a first for a display designer or stylist to have so much space that they could stack so many tables so high.

Just in terms of general design principles, the show highlighted again an important aspect of Danish interiors … that in many Danish homes furniture and fittings of very different periods and styles are deliberately mixed together … so starkly modern lighting or steel and glass furniture in an old apartment that has panelling or ornate plasterwork and sash windows - though perhaps not often on the scale of this Palæ. 

Or in a starkly modern home you will find either a carefully-chosen chair from the classic period of Danish design in the 1950s and 60s or old and much-loved pieces of furniture that have been inherited.

One general but simple lesson here in the Hay display was that choosing tableware and so on carefully and then using multiples but leaving it all out as open storage on display can look pretty good.

For Hay, the building also provided an impressive setting for showing off, with pride, their latest products and for welcoming and entertaining visitors who could sit in the calm and quiet of an old entrance passage used as a temporary cafe or people could have a coffee out in the sun of the courtyard that has been fitted out with Hay’s Palissade furniture. 

Hay

 

update - Liquid Life

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Although the biennale exhibition of Danish craft at Museumsbygningen closed at the weekend, several of the works have been moved across the city and can now be seen at the gallery of Danske Kunsthåndværkerere & Deisignere - the Danish Crafts and Design Association - in Copenhagen at Bredgade 66.

DKoD Bredgade 66

 

Liquid Life - Biennalen for Kunsthåndværk & Design 2017

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This is the last two days of the Biennalen ... an exhibition of some of the very best of Danish craft work.

What is astounding here are those very qualities that are not normally associated with Danish design … or at least not with common preconceptions about Danish design from the late 20th century. So here there is strong, bold use of colour and texture and the exploration of ideas that challenge perceptions and preconceptions. 

The theme Liquid Life - about how precarious modern life can feel - is from a text by Zygmunt Baumann and taken from his book Liquid Life that was published in 2005.

“Liquid life is the kind of life commonly lived in our contemporary, liquid-modern society ... The most acute and stubborn worries that haunt this liquid life are the fears of being caught napping, of failing to catch up with fast moving events, of overlooking the ‘use by’ dates and being saddled with worthless possessions, of missing the moment calling for a change of tack and being left behind.”

With an amazing diversity of both materials and techniques - with works in ceramic and glass, with textiles, jewellery, furniture, book binding, fashion and photography - and with many of the artists combining several materials and in some works several specialist skills - these works are the response that these observations by Zygmunt Bauman inspired in thirty seven artists, designers and makers ........... a response and an antidote.

 

Liquid Life - Biennalen for Kunsthåndværk & Design 2017

Museumsbygningen, Kastelsvej 18, Copenhagen until 27 May 2017

 

 
 
 

note: select an image by clicking on it and that will take you into the gallery where the title of the work and the name(s) of the artist(s) can be found

more photographs

Silica Visions

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FIXED//FLUID, Kitta Christiansen

Impossible Vessels, Thibault Varry

 

This weekend is the last opportunity to see Silica Visions at the Round Tower in Copenhagen … an exhibition of works by students who graduated this year from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Design on Bornholm.

 

Rundetaarn, Købmagergade, 1150 Copenhagen K