A craftsperson's artistic process can be uniquely complex. While inspiration may be sudden, creating an object or a specific design in a workshop may indeed take quite a long time and several stages between experimentation, research into materials and development of innovative approaches. This is the theme of Mindcraft14, the yearly event organised during Milan Design Week by Danish Crafts, an institution of the Danish Ministry of Culture aimed at promoting local art and crafts internationally.
Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and curated by acclaimed designer Nina Tolstrup (from design firm Studiomama and well known for collaborating with fashion brand Marc by Marc Jacobs), Mindcraft brings to Milan's Fuori Salone pieces created by 12 craftspeople.
Between lamps produced using thermoforming/moulding (Iskos-Berlin's "The Birth of Marilyn"), a piece of meta-jewellery consisting in a long "ribbon" of pencil lead stitched/woven together ("iLoveLetters" by Katrine Borup) and a collection of ceramic works that reinterprets the archetypal jar shapes ("Horror Vacui" by Morten Løbner Espersen), there is also "The Dance of the Deaf and Dumb Eye", a series of three papier-mâché, yarn, fabric, glass and acrylic wig sculptures, by Nikoline Liv Andersen.
The pieces combine the three wise monkeys Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru, with references to the French court under Louis XVI, while commenting upon the consequences of shutting against the outside world by refusing to see, hear or speak, and hinting in this way at the globalisation conditions of today's blind consumers.
Born in Copenhagen, Andersen was educated at The Danish Design School. After graduating in fashion design in 2006 she opted to develop her personal research into different fields, creating installations suspended between design, crafts and art and made following haute couture techniques.
Her installations and one-off pieces require many hours of work and are often made with unconventional materials and with techniques including embroidering, painting and surface elaboration processes that radically transform a material to make it look like something else. In her practice craft is definitely the added value to an otherwise future of replicants.
As Nina Tolstrup also states in a Mindcraft press release: "Global industrial manufacturing is becoming increasingly uniform, simplified and thus also more vulnerable to plagiarism. Craft is a powerful response – as well as an important source of inspiration for renewal and development in industrial manufacturing".
Is this the first time you're part of the Mindcraft event at Ventura Lambrate and what do you expect from this experience?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: Yes, it is and I look forward to it. I recently won Remix 2014 in the category "Pimp my Coat", in collaboration with Saga Furs, and also this event took place in Milan, but this is the first time I join the Milanese design week. For Mindcraft I will be presenting 3 monkey wigs from my project "The Dance of the Deaf and Dumb Eye".
Your practice is suspended between art and fashion design: do you consider yourself an artist or a fashion designer?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: People often ask me if I am an artist or a designer. I tell them that I am a designer because I am educated as a designer. I actually think that too many calls themselves artists, while that is a title that you have to live up to. But I know that I am working more with clothing as an artist than as a designer.
You create installations and clothing designs that challenge people's perceptions of the world – which are your favourite materials?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: I really love experimenting with materials and fabrics and I try to give them new aesthetic qualities. I am very fascinated by transforming industrially produced materials such as straws and nails into something organic. I like to twist the idea of what is natural and what is artificial.
The bizarre woollen monkey wigs make me think about Marie Antoinette - is there a reference to history in this pieces?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: You’re absolutely right about the story behind the monkey wigs. I was invited by Designmuseum Danmark to participate in a Rococo exhibition and work with Rococo with a new intercultural perspective. Based on the classic Japanese monkeys who naively shut out the outside world by not seeing, not hearing and not speaking, the clothing sculptures were visualised through a counterpart to the French court of Louis XVI, whose excessive exuberance and poor communication between nobility and the people led to the French Revolution. Through my work I am always searching for a meaning of life and questioning our way of living.
Most of your work is done by hand: which is the material that took you the longest time to work?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: Everything I do is extremely time-consuming, but I love working with delicate details in the fabric. One of my most complicated garments I have made was a dress made out of bristly nails. It was really complicated to sew and you had to be very aware of the order of steps in the process. Another complicated dress was a big black, red and white dress made out of 45.000 straws!
You have also been experimenting with Saga Furs – what kind of new ways of treating fur and of piecing furs together did you experiment with?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: I find it very funny and interesting to give fur an edgy look by mixing it with metal or plastic.
Can you tell us more about receiving the Gold Award at Remix 2014 - Pimp my Coat?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: It was a great honor to receive it. I found the theme of the competition very interesting – you had to remake an old vintage fur coat. Instead of throwing an old coat out you can remake it and give it a longer life. I really liked that.
Will you be taking part in any further events after Ventura Lambrate?
Nikoline Liv Andersen: At the moment I am working on a very big event that will take place in Copenhagen in May. Also in May I have a solo exhibition at the Horsens Art Museum.
MINDCRAFT14 is on display until 13th April 2014 at Milan’s Ventura Lambrate.
Image credits for this post:
1. Photograph by Nick de Silva;
2.- 6. Nikoline Liv Andersen; "The Dance of the Deaf and Dumb Eye" by Nikoline Liv Andersen, 2014. Product images: MINDCRAFT/jeppegudmundsen.com; Portrait: MINDCRAFT / Alastair Philip Wiper;
7. Pimp my Coat by Nikoline Liv Andersen.
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