Shaping Beauty

img.0 Norway x New York. Photos by Charlie Shuck and The White Arrow – Courtesy of Sight Unseen.

US magazine Sight Unseen‘s editors created a cross-cultural exchange called Norway x New York, pairing 5 American studios with 5 Norwegian studios, who spent six months working together long-distance on objects that utilize an American workshop for fabrication and can be independently manufactured for future sales. Norway x New York was on Show at Sight Unseen OFFSITE exhibition.
img.1 Norway x New York. Photo by Charlie Shuck.

“America and Norway are surprisingly similar when it comes to design. Both countries have far more skilled young talents than they do manufacturers” - explained Sight Unseen editors Monica Khemserov and Jill Singer - “In the past 10 years, many American designers have shifted away from a reliance on brands and more toward self-initiated production and distribution. Norwegian designers are also beginning to embrace their independence”.
img.2 Vonnegut/Kraft + Kneip. Photo by The White Arrow.

Construction materials inspired New York Studio Vonnegut/Kraft and their Norwegian colleagues Kneip to design a collection of tables and containers made of grainy light and dark bricks. At the start of the collaboration, they discussed an interest in developing sculptural forms using materials that had been re-appropriated from their originally intended use.
img.3 Moving Mountains + Runa Klock. Photo by The White Arrow.

Moving Mountains and Runa Klock  teamed up with a Brooklyn glassblower to create colorful vases. “We chose glassmaking because it has remained unmechanized since ancient times, and because its process has a mystique they sought to unlock.”, said the designers.
img.4 Slash Objects + Thomas Jenkins. Photo by The White Arrow.

Both Oslo-based industrial designer Thomas Jenkins and Brooklyn-based Slash Objects found out they share a common interest in bold structures and forms that have an element of interaction. The designers joined forces to shape a lighting design composed of a concrete cylinder base cast with a light-reflecting pivoting brass disc.
img.5 Jamie Wolfond + Sigve Knutson. Photo by The White Arrow.

Split Bench is a heavyweight indoor/outdoor steel structure that marries Sigve Knutson and Jamie Wolfond’s love of unusual forms with Jamie’s approach to sheet-metal bending. The design draws attention to the inherent beauty of galvanization, a finishing method most commonly found on highway guardrails and lamp posts. BUE a stool was initially inspired by a 1940s Swiss prayer knee-rest and comes in American oak wood and Norwegian wool. The seat was created by New York studio Visibility and Norway based Noidoi.
img.6 Visibility + Noidoi. Photo by The White Arrow.

For further information visit Archipanic.