S12 OPENS IN BONTELABO 2
Performance with the feminist glass group BOOM!
The Future Is Female is a performance by the feminist glass group BOOM! which premiers during the opening of S12s new location. The performance is based on BOOM!’s approach to glass and their driving force for separatist organization. They see a new future within the glass. A future where what is valued within the tradition is not a masculine one, a less masculine world of glass. In the performance BOOM! paves the way for a future where glass is made in a new, more feminine way – heady, sweaty and fun! BOOM! works in a norm critical way and plays with terms and classifications of the feminine. They pioneer a broader view of how to work with glass. Starting countdown!
The film BOOM! is made by Louise Eriksson and Klara Kristofferson.
BOOM! is a female separatist group consisting of Nina Westman, Sara Lundkvist, Matilda Kästel, Erika Kristofersson Bredberg and Ammy Olofsson. They are five artist who all work with glass as their main material. As a group they wish to create a platform for each other and others, where knowledge and experience are shared, thereby giving each other strength, developing common goals and ideas, supporting one another and other women in their practice. BOOM! acknowledges the need to change the structures within the field of contemporary glass, and that women need a space and to work together with common feminist goals and methods. The name of the group refers to the explosion, a reference they’ve also used in other works. BOOM! see the strength of organizing in groups as a core force in the feminist struggle, and believe that together one can push boundaries.
Ammy Olofsson explores the meeting point between craft and technology, investigating our understanding of self and our roles within society. Though trained in glassblowing techniques, these are subordinated within her practice. Olofsson has undertaken the role of the Mad Scientist and constructed sculptures of glass which also functions as computers. Olofsson participated in the exhibition Glassyke at S12 in2017.
Nina Westman works interdisciplinary and blurs the lines between craft and performance. Formally trained within theater, as an actress and scenographer, she combines these skills with the ones of a glassblower. She looks at glass as a communicative material, a material we all know, use and have expectations toward; brittle and sharp, often shaped to drink off. In all her projects she works with these expectations and tries to flip them. Her quest is one of questioning traditions of glassmaking while paying tribute to them. Why do one have to follow in the footsteps of old, when we can make new ones?
Matilda Kästels interest in glass lies within the materials qualities and ambiguity; hard but fragile, beautiful but potentially dangerous. In warm conditions, it is so soft one can mold it by hand, in cold conditions hard, cold and sharp. To her this paradox is useful in creating experiences of opposition; a meeting point between beauty and discomfort. She works with glass and mixed media, kinetics and performance. She seeks to include senses of excitement within her work, a feeling of not knowing what exactly an object is, or what it is meant for. Often something is attractive and desirable, as well as uncomfortable and unpleasant. Kästel seldom makes works only intended to look at, she wants them to have an agency of their own. Leak, squirt, act out. They are meant to be non-passive. She thinks of it as feminist strategies within the field of craft.
Sara Lundkvist graduated from Konstfack, Sweden in 2012. She works with objects, installations and art in public spaces. She has an interdisciplinary approach to art, and her interest lies within studying and understanding the definition and concept of “material culture” og how to use it in order to tell new stories. With glass as medium she investigates different phenomena from nature, mythology and spirituality, tackling questions regarding authenticity,values, aesthetic and cultural aspects related to “material culture” and its objects. By looking at how objects are used as vessels for meaning and significance, she investigates different aspects of desire and our ability to project values such as hope, faith and dreams onto objects. Lundkvist researches the capabilities material, objects and things hold in order to give it a deeper meaning, depending on what we fill them with.
Erika Kristofersson Bredberg is educated from Kosta Centre of Glass (2008–10), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation at Bornholm (2010–11) and Konstfack, Ceramic & Glass in Stockholm (2011–14). Across one of her fingers is a tattoo stating “I blow just for fun”. Her work borders between clear function and abstract sculpture. She can control hot glass, but sometimes chooses not to. Her heart beats for nature, but she is inspired by the city, with its tall chimneys spewing out dust, black smoke and white clouds. She’s proud of her knowledge in glass, but happily combines it with other material or treats the glass in a more theoretical framework.