Konstfack is the largest of all design schools in Sweden. 182 students graduate in all kinds of disciplines in art, design and craft. Here is my report on craft and design.
Every time I go to the schools for the graduation shows, I try to see if there is a change from previous years. Can you give this generation of designers and crafts people a “name”? Last year I called the graduates “kind”. It was a kind and caring generation. See my report from 2023 here.
The generation of 2024 at Konstfack is proper and hardworking. It is serious. Not at all political. At a time when we talk about war, Gaza etc none of that is present here. Neither is new technology. Scared of AI? Not visiable here…
But it is not as selfcentered as I have seen other years. So it is not about me, me, me – and not about giving world peace. I simply think these kids are looking for a job.
Before you read about all the projects I want to be clear from the beginning. My three favourite projects are:
eating jewellry
sculpture for my garden – and for insects
a wood sofa with construction timber
So it is very proper and hardworking. Like the ceramics by Pia Amsell above. It is a specific ceramics technique called coiling and the pieces look like flowers, organic and like mushrooms. It’s good. But it doesn’t upset me.
This is possibly my favourite piece at Konstfack. It has everything. It is conceptual, strange, energetic and fun. It breaks boarders. This it from the department of precious metals (Ädellab) by student Erik Lagergren. Ädellab is always pushing limits on what is “jewellry”. This piece talks about the production of gem stones and metals. Sweden is now producing a lot of metals for i.e. batteries. At this table, you are invited to sit down, smash stones and eat them. Are you thinking about the miners or are you just filling your intestants with emeralds and sapphire?
FUN! Provocative. And I love it.
I also like the fun atmosphere with Sonja Wingborg. She made a concept where one would produce colour in egg tempera. It’s made with eggs and “guests of honour” would be the hens. Cackle and colour. What happens to eggs that aren’t eaten? The become wall paint. Fun.
But humour was missing this year. I remember last year when there was a student who made a textile tablecloth with wine stains. Fun. And humorous. Not so this year. 2024 everyone is looking for a job. Not to change the world.
The name is funny and the concept beautiful. These are “zombie textiles”. No, not something that comes out at night, but actually never dies. These are beautifully made recycled textiles. I give full score to nice craft, sustainability and just for a tongue in cheek attitude. By Henrietta Elfström.
More monsters. Is this generation obsesessed with fiction because the daily life is too scary? Top hairy costume made of actual human hair by Klara Djamila Kassman Soukkan and toy monsters by Ambra Byrne.
If we leave the monsters for a while, the school brought some beauty. Perhaps this is what you expect from a design school like Konstfack? These three projects are plainly just so beautiful. And intelligent.
Top one is by Nils Askhagen. Using construction timber as reuse. Just beautiful. So well done. Iconic.
Middle one is a room diffuser made of clay that lowers the temperature. Why use AC when you can have a beautiful thing like this? By Hannah Klein. You see the room temperature and how it gets cooled.
And the wood flower is an insect hotel or bee hotel. Of course I want to have a beautiful thing like this in my garden. It doesn’t have to be homemade or look like a house. So nice. By Ariana Drvota.
Bachelors and Konstfack is very often about testing new materials. It’s nice and all, but a huge focus on just showing how someone have tested a new thing. Very often a person like me want to see a finished example of a product. Not just material testing.
Top one is recycled glass by Johanna
Second is pine sap or resin. Here as a kind of tiles thing… By Soraya Hassan.
Third is Fredrik Sahlström. He is experimenting with cut or splitting wood. When done so, the wood shows new, intricate pattern. Then here coloured.
Fourth is Alexandra Friberg. Here experimenting with wood for a room that should make you reconnect with nature.
And now – finally. A section of things and objects that I remember from Konstfack 2024.
Katarzyna Kowalczyk made an installation of graphical prints she saw at her grandmother’s. As with previous years, we tend to see a lot of selfinvestigation. But less so this year.
More family stories. Here Finnish sauna history. Bot so goddam welldone. A textile. Zoom in and look how it changes. Done by Sara Edengreen.
The glass installation by Kira Vertebra was super effective (and scary – more monsters?). Here glass shoes and an axe…
Proper and nice. Nothing provocative. Glass by Cribbe Eriksson
A gorgeous textile print by Amanda Sartori Leksell. Look at the colour combinations. Yum.
Craft and arty by Jonathan Gard.
In general the whole interior design department did well with a lot of installations. Here a room for a gynaecologist office. By Emma Vo Gårdh. Proper and nice.
We’ve seend it before. But proper and nice. By Max Lundgren.
Stages of greenery. Keeping the daffodils or not? No mow May? Nice, but not really provocative. By Ronja Joensuu.
Just a quick summary. I am happy with Konstfack. It is relevant and nice. Nothing provocative. No contemporary questions like peace or talking about AI. But nice.