The new world of Swedish crafts

Swedish crafts have seldom had the vitality or range of expression they show today.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is an attitude questioning established approaches in the crafts that resonated at Swedish crafts colleges six or seven years ago. At that time more and more students and recent graduates began to shift their focus from a deep interest in technology, materials and function toward a new desire to tell a story with the things they made, to use these objects to comment on our times and their own activities. In the same process, commercial culture and its various manifestations were raised to an equal level with the more traditional aesthetics of Swedish craftsmanship, including the quest for something seen to be genuine and uncontrived. The boundaries between design, art, fashion and the crafts became more and more permeable.

Lamp by Zandra Ahl. Photo: Zandra Ahl. 

Story-telling objects

It is hard to overestimate the part played in this process by craftswoman Zandra Ahl. In 2001, in partnership with the journalist Emma Olsson, she published the book Svensk smak—Myter om den moderna formen (Swedish taste—myths about modern design), which was to have a great impact. It launched a polemic about the norms—and the people—that now determine and have long determined what is regarded as top quality in the design world, and among other things questioned the time-honored cliché of Swedish design as blond, pure and spartan. Ahl’s own pottery and glass do not look like that at all. In her work she uses attributes that for most of the 20th century were often seen in prestigious contexts as banal or as “decorative”—provocative terms for those whose creed is “form follows function.” Ahl’s pottery and glass display bows and plastic chains, and reference comic strips. She has inspired several, mainly younger, followers to a style that by its dissonance draws attention to established norms. She has also provided fuel for an increasingly lively internal and public debate on the crafts.

Another pioneer in developing a craftsmanship that raises questions about the world around us is silversmith Anders Ljungberg. His massive objects in silver, for example his bowls and jugs, follow a modernist silversmith tradition, with smooth silver and gleaming, highly polished surfaces. At the same time the pieces highlight prejudices about how utility wares should look and relate to their surroundings; jugs, for instance, are placed under a table instead of on it. Ljungberg has played an important part in the development of massive Swedish silver work in recent years, as it slowly moves away from its formerly distinctive severe elegance and virtuoso aesthetics to a greater range of expression.

 
Jug looking for new views by Anders Ljungberg. Photo: Håkansson/Mannberg. 

Technique in rebellion

Swedish craftspeople have also recently been examining legacy views on what constitutes “good craftsmanship”—and this has led to the use of new forms of expression. Silversmith Jenny Edlund has asked herself why there is a traditional notion that enamel should not be scorched and silver not be heated till it sags, if these happen to be expressions you appreciate and want to achieve. She has explored her own taste by violating craft conventions, and in this way created an authoritative and expressive aesthetic.

Ceramic artist Gustaf Nordenskiöld, on the other hand, has thrown into relief implicit expectations that ceramic craftsmanship should create a rustic and well-made impression by consciously trying to understate the handmade and the craft-based. Instead of letting the hand influence the shape of the clay, he has chosen to let various tools leave their mark, and used craft techniques not traditional to ceramics, such as turning and candle-dipping. The results often appear to have been hastily but efficiently achieved, instead of being coaxed forth with virtuoso craftsmanship—and they attract attention. The objects are also “trend-centric” in a way rarely seen in earlier Swedish craftsmanship.

Reconquering the figurative

The idea of practically designed objects devoid of exaggerated mannerisms is rooted in an ethos represented by the 20th century “folkhem” (welfare state) slogan “vackrare vardagsvara” (more beautiful things for everyday use), promoting rational, high-quality utility wares for the general public. Over the years this ethos has had a powerful influence on the work produced by Swedish craftspeople. In recent years, however, the decorative and figurative dimension has been reconquered, and is now operating in parallel with a more traditionally subdued and spartan aesthetic. The rings of jewel artist Charlotte Sinding provide an example of figurative design. They are adorned with four-inch silicon birds, and made a splash in the early 21st century. At an exhibition in Stockholm in 2007, she displayed jewelry resembling trembling body parts. As with several contemporary jewel makers, her works train a searchlight on clichéd and mechanical attitudes to decoration. The jewels are conversation pieces, worn by courageous owners.

Serving tradition

In parallel with young art college graduates and their quest for new ways of working and expressing themselves, other craftspeople work in a more traditional fashion. They explore, in depth, materials, techniques and style. Take ceramic artist Jussi Ojala’s research-oriented attitude to expressive, runny ash glazes, for instance, or utility wares ceramic artist Ellen Ehk’s desire to make objects with a classical Asian spirit to evoke tranquillity in our stressed contemporary society. 

The expressive palette used by contemporary Swedish craftspeople is a rich and expanding universe.

Links

blås&knåda
www.blasknada.com

Galleri Konstepidemin
www.konstepidemin.com/hnoss

Gustavsbergs Konsthall
www.gustavsbergskonsthall.se

Kaolin
www.kaolin.se

Nutida svenskt silver
www.nutida.nu

Platina
www.platina.se

WWIAFM
www.weworkinafragilematerial.com 

Swedish industrial design is in great shape

“Swedish Design is in a very healthy state—among the best in the world,” claimed an international design jury in Sweden’s largest morning paper Dagens Nyheter in January 2007. And in fact the Swedish design scene is now more vibrant than it has been for a long time. As late as the nineties, neo-modernism was predominant and Swedish design stood for traditional values like simplicity, functionality and blond wood. But then something happened. A new generation of young craftspeople and designers led by Zandra Ahl and Uglycute questioned the values handed down to them, and enthusiastically advocated a more abrasive, less perfectionist, more human attitude to design. In their view, the well-meaning ideology underlying the slogan “more beautiful things for everyday use,” with form dictated by function, had gradually lost its original force, and all that remained was exclusivity. With their rough-hewn objects they wanted to create a new kind of democratic design, with its roots in everyday creativity. Inspired by feminism and postmodernism, they argued for a design able to tell users something of the historical and material culture in which we live.

Car carrier E/S Orcelle by No Picnic. Photo: No Picnic.

Swedish pluralism

If there is one thing characteristic of Swedish design today, it is diversity. Monica Förster’s softly minimalist furniture exists alongside wildly experimental work by Front. Basic Swedish fashion like Filippa K now finds itself in the company of the knitting acrobatics of Sandra Backlund; the strict graphic design of Stockholm Design Lab rubs shoulders with Andreas & Fredrika’s arty graphic design; and established industrial design studios like No Picnic work alongside startups like Syntes Studio, which specializes in storytelling. This is remarkable in a Simon Says country like Sweden, which has traditionally only had room for one ideal at a time.

Cross-disciplinary design 

Today the boundaries between design, art, fashion and handicrafts are virtually dissolved, as the internationally acknowledged industrial design group Front well illustrates. In 2004, the four women unveiled their first work to a bemused design world—a wallpaper where rats had gnawed out the pattern, and a loudspeaker that looked like a glass vase. After a number of years working primarily with conceptual design, they now devote their time increasingly to a parallel track of mass production. For the Dutch furniture producer Moooi, for instance, their horse lamp represents a 21st century successor to the porcelain lampstand ballerinas of the late 19th century.

Swedish design worldwide

Many Swedish designers currently work internationally. Architects Thomas Sandell and Thomas Eriksson showed the way in the late nineties, and the architectural trio Claesson, Koivisto, Rune (CKR) has since helped to advance Swedish design in the world on a broad front. CKR, founded in 1994, has designed cultural centers in Kyoto and residential houses in Uruguay, as well as furniture for companies like Cappellini, Boffi and Living Divani. It has proved a great source of inspiration to Front and other internationally acknowledged Swedish designers.

Design policy

Swedish politicians have also shown a growing interest in design issues in recent years. The Swedish government of the time designated 2005 as the Year of Design, funding it with resources from both the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications and the Ministry of Culture. One result of the Year of Design was the exhibition Konceptdesign (Conceptual Design) at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, which some critics labeled a design bombshell, and which later proved to have encouraged the now prevalent diversity. Its message was in tune with that of the younger generation: “Modern Swedish design has long been characterized by the ideology of functionalism, with its priorities of simplicity and appropriate function. But today Swedish design is about creating values that stretch beyond a product’s functionality and aesthetics. It is about communication and quality of life. About telling stories with the products.”

The narrative drive is now seen in all spheres of design. Even in Swedish industrial design, with its long tradition of functionality and engineering, there is more and more emphasis on adding emotional and human values to products. Not least as a way of giving them a distinctive look in the “sea of sameness” engulfing the whole western world.

When, for instance, Electrolux designed the prize-winning hand and floor vacuum cleaner Ergorapido some years ago, one of its main criteria was that customers should like it so much that they would want to keep it in view even when it was not in use.

Design research 

In conjunction with the Year of Design in 2005, the government of the day decided to invest funds in starting up a national research school for design. Nineteen institutions of higher education then joined forces in the Swedish Design Research Network and together launched a research college, based at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, in the autumn of 2007.

But even before this there was interesting design research in Sweden. One example was the project “Static!,” initiated by the Interactive Institute and financed by the Swedish Energy Agency (STEM). “Static!” was about creating energy awareness using design. In line with the principle “if you materialize an abstract pattern of reasoning, it’s easier to understand” it produced a lot of prototypes. With a Power Awareness Cord, for instance, it is easy to see how much electricity a machine uses: when it consumes more energy, the cable shines with greater intensity. The project also has products that reward you for good behavior, like the Flower Lamp, which “blooms” when you reduce your electricity consumption.
 
Swedish design for a sustainable future is also thriving. In particular, Sweden will be hosting an international workshop of global interest in 2009. The theme, Moving a City, is taken from the experience of the northern city of Kiruna, where large-scale mining operations have given rise to subsidence fissures. The city center will gradually be moved to match a new town plan, and form an ecologically customized society for the future. The workshop is backed by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), a global association of companies, organizations and institutions encouraging and promoting improved design.

Links

The Swedish Society of Crafts and Design
www.svenskform.se

The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, SVID
www.svid.se

Form/Design Center
www.formdesigncenter.com

Nationalmuseum
www.nationalmuseum.se

The Röhsska Museum of Applied Art and Design
www.designmuseum.se

Scandinavian Design
www.scandinaviandesign.com

International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID)
www.icsid.org

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