Matilda Kästel

Matilda Kästel (b. 1984) is a Swedish glass artist based in Stockholm. After completing her MFA at Konstfack in 2013, she has worked extensively with exhibitions, commissioned works, performance, and workshops.

Kästel works with glass in combination with other materials, kinetics, or performance. Her process is hands-on in every step – from sculpted originals in clay or wax to plaster molds and cast or blown glass. When working with interaction, the body is an important part of her process: as inspiration, as a working tool, and as a receiver. Glass is tactile in every stage, and she wants this tactility to be perceived. It is a contradiction to feel without touching, and she wants the work to be felt.

In her practice, Kästel aims to create a sense of tension – a feeling of not fully knowing what an object is or what it is meant for. The forms can be both alluring and slightly unsettling. Objectification and marginalization serve as acts of resistance within her work. The pieces are rarely passive; they are meant to have their own agenda. To leak, to splash, to strike back. To be active.

Kästel is a member of the female separatist glass group BOOM!, which works to expand the field of glassmaking, share knowledge, and build inclusive communities. She describes her practice as a form of feminist strategy within material-based art.

Matilda’s works are represented in collections including the Nationalmuseum in Sweden, Glas – Museet for Glaskunst in Ebeltoft, and the Public Art Agency Sweden.

In this project, I primarily wish to explore the fragility of the body, the skeleton, and the internal organs, under the working title Nära/Close. I want to combine blown and cast glass with simple mechanisms that, for example, make a glass jaw chew, a sculptural candy machine release a colorful gumball, or a glass tombola spin.

At S12, Matilda worked on the project Nära/Close, where the fragility of the body, the skeleton, and the internal organs were at the center. She combines blown and cast glass with simple mechanisms that, for example, make a glass jaw chew, a sculptural candy machine release a colorful gumball, or a glass tombola spin.

The residency was supported by the Alexander Tutsek Stiftung