Totally Stockholm 1
”What’s the use of all these artistic expressions
and orientations?” Konstfack principal Maria Lantz recites a common question she gets from politicians and others. She maintains that it’s like questioning bird song. If she had to give an answer, it would be that it’s the answers to the questions that haven’t been asked, or questions that have been asked and perhaps answered but now have been reinterpreted. Around this time every year Konstfack welcomes the public to their spaces to see and experience the work of their graduating students. This year, of course, they have had to do things a bit differently. They’re bringing the degree exhibition to you, by creating an online platform that you can access from the comfort of your home, where you can get to know all 193 students and their projects. Curators Emily Fahlén and Asrin Haidari explain it as a collection of stories from a generation, a depiction of our contemporary society, tales of the chaotic time we currently live in, with arts, crafts, architecture and pedagogy helping us to understand it better. They portray the future in ingenious innovations and history reactivated in new forms and guises. Konstfack’s spring exhibition is available online, but is also being shown on screen at Sergels Torg, and will exist in physical form in showrooms and art halls like Gustavsbergs and Mint on Sveavägen. konstfack2020.se Maja Bäckström Flower Heart “The work Flower Heart consists of five portrait photographs printed on textile with embroidered floral motives. The flowers were chosen based on their symbolic meaning according to the book The Swedish Language of Flowers, and how that meaning correlates to my relationship with the person portrayed. For each portrait, there is an embroidered book containing the flowers in the portrait along with their symbolic meaning. For my degree project, I wanted to explore the therapeutic qualities of the embroidery technique. I began working on the project right after finishing a therapy programme for eating disorders. The work became a continuation of this, a way to leave behind old and unhealthy habits and to focus my thoughts on the repetitive work of stitching. It is also an investigation into how embroidery can be used to manifest love and care for others, and to let that love live on in the world after we leave it.” 9