Modern Ornament, Sweater, Shoes, Lab-Coat // Plaster and Porcelain Molding, Weaving and Porcelain Laser-Cut-Engraving
The Modern Ornament is a project created in reaction to the fear that the knowledge of traditional craftsmanship demises in times when new technologies and machine-made products take over. This project emphasises on the creation of porcelain making and is inspired by one of the world’s most prestigious porcelain collections, the Flora Danica. This collection combines highly decorative elements with botanical drawings of wild plants and is a symbol of the era of the enlightenment. The preservation of knowledge of common plants is of particular interest to the work created and comments on the ideas we have about what is worthy of preservation.
Next to this the aim of the project is to rethink the today’s ornament both in meaning and aesthetic.
The Shoes are created as a plaster cast for porcelain making, where the ornament lies hidden on the inside. The cast is about 17% bigger then the wearer‘s foot, due to the shrinking process of the porcelain in the furnace. Standing in a massive oversize shoe of plaster creates a feeling of being lost and out-dated.
The Lab-Coat, the porcelain maker’s uniform resembles its industrial fabricated prototype, but turns into a cape in the back, where pleats, signs of work, are turned into ornaments.
3-Dimensional sequin-like porcelain-sticks are woven into the fabric that makes up the Sweater. The object combines traditional techniques and baroque aesthetics with modern technologies and their belonging motifs in the form of pixels and grids.