Among physical and metaphorical tools

Application summary

At the heart of this project are wooden sculptures that take the shape of tools, equipment and workspaces. The sculptures are performative objects that invite the hand for touch and let us conceptualize the action of using them. I use pre-industrial tools and obsolete technology to contemplate working with hands in contemporary society. During the working period I will make wooden sculptures and installations, hold exhibitions and workshops, and carry out performative fieldwork. My artistic work contains approaches from the fields of craft, education and anthropology. Working entirely by hand enables me to work independently of electricity, take my tools anywhere and to connect with people and different forms of knowledge. My workshops, collaborations and performative fieldwork aim to empower participants and argue that craft, initiative and sensibility for material are common to all of us and independent of background or ability. In my work I use both literal tools (physical objects that shape material) and metaphorical tools (practices that bring forth social changes). The overarching goal is to unite both qualities. The forests and the hand-tool technologies that are vital to this project exist at scales much larger than a human life. My work views the things we do, think and feel over the span of several generations and sees art as a long term cross-generational effort. It makes approachable what is otherwise thought of as lost, obsolete or unattainable. It evaluates the possibilities of historical and current material knowledge as a powerful strategy for an uncertain future.