by Birgit Severin

 

Ashes is a series of household objects which explores associations between beauty and death. Flowers and fruit are symbols of beauty, youth and pleasure. Simultaneously, in their decay they become reminders of life’s brevity and the inevitability of death. The Ashes series acknowledges both aspects in equal measure.

The expressive power of withering was commonly used to represent the idea of vanitas in art, particularly in Flemish painting. The project reinterprets this concept for the context of the modern household. The series contains vases which are either full, or in different stages of ‚withering‘.

A novel type of materiality was developed through combining the newest production techniques with handcraft. The process utilises 3D printing, rubber rotation casting and freehand modelling to produce a flowing, matte surface overlayed with a sparkling pattern of jewel-like dots.