ALEXANDER KIRKEBY

As a glassblower and designer, Alexander Kirkeby is drawn by clear glass as a material that is inherently both dramatic and graceful. “I am fascinated by the process, there is a constant movement and full awareness of the hot and liquid mass,” he says of his craft. In his work the Aarhus-based designer explores functionality while striving to make an ordinary moment such as drinking water into a tactile and aesthetic experience. The starting point is honouring the old craft tradition and then interpreting it to challenge the convention of perfect and refined crafts and, by working fast and aggressively, let the material be a co-creator in the final object. The work balances the tension between a mastery of the craft and the material’s own chaotic being, says Kirkeby, a graduate in design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. A contrast arises between the precise and the fluid optical quality of the glass. With clear glass as the medium the work interprets archetypal objects standing on the pillars of traditional glass working techniques and contorted aesthetics. Shapes and decoration are deformed, flowing in and out of each other and manifests as a design object.

For Ark Kollekt 01 Kirkeby has made four pieces, a wine glass, champagne glass, water glass and unique vase.