In the design world, all eyes are on Scandinavia. If someone asks about
future design trends, Danish and Swedish creations are immediately named as trend-setting innovations,
leaders of the pack. This is much to the gratification of the designers in Europe’s most northern cities,
since the prominence of their local scene is critical to regional self-confidence and the security of
the large number of design jobs that have been created in the area.
The
intense scrutiny undergone by Scandinavian design does, however, often overlook designers whose work
is not easily categorized or is seen as deviating from the “conventional” image of Scandinavian aesthetics.
This applies, for example, to the highly productive Anders Jakobsen, whose “products,”
working methods and stylistic consistency are extremely unique and eye-catching. His work tends to polarize
opinions and tends to ask open-ended questions; it evades categorization and goes against all the rules
dictated by “good design”. Harmony-seeking North European design consumers don’t quite know what to
think.
Lagombra, as Jakobsen calls himself, builds
his objects from mass-produced consumer products. He joins them together with simple constructs: wooden
boards cut in organic shapes. Lagombra usually buys the products he uses during shopping tours in large
furniture stores. “Design shopping” as he calls it. The phrase is not incorrect, but perhaps only very
generally covers what he does. It is clear that he makes his selection very carefully: only products
with prices which justify the added value of optimization through design make it into his large Stockholm
studio, which looks like a messy hobby workshop. Here, noodle strainers are sawn apart and made into
lampshades. Flower vases find a new application as structural supports, and desk lamps become chandeliers.
The pieced-together practicality of his self-built assemblages is contrasted
with hand-finished ornamentation and bright colors. Each attached component is fastened with large,
highly visible screws and their surface design makes these forms both elaborate and also pointedly simple.
Larger constructs become clusters of materials, large clouds of bright colored objects that have been
assembled with a home-improvement-handyman logic. “Hand-made” and “home-made” become something really
interesting!
Lagombra achieves a latent do-it-yourself aesthetic that
subliminally makes you want to have a go at it yourself. Individually, components get lost in his collections
of new objects. The superlatives traditionally used to describe a product’s sheen of perfection have
been replaced by an unconventional, more sympathetic identity. Closeness and honesty are the result
of his “incorrect” use of a “modern self-service emporium” approach.
Lagombra
and his designs are very likeable. It is difficult to say whether this likeability is ultimately due
to his open and animated personality or to the unconventional execution of his installations.
If
the latter is the case, maybe it is because his visual style can really be felt on a gut level. In particular,
the construction components that seem markedly “low-brow” in their craftsmanship now produce different
reactions. Lagombra has a noticeable intuitive touch for an “anti-mass production” aesthetic. He takes
the “applied” out of design and raises a very current question as to the meaning and necessity of the
product and consumption in general.
Maybe this slice of Zeitgeist
is what secures Lagombra his place among all the other more product-oriented designers. We shouldn’t
expect marketable mass products from him. Instead, his work tends towards art, a direction he chose
in 2001. New works now include barely any of the converted objects from his “design shopping” tours,
and the formal impact of his deconstructive/reconstructive interventions is gaining significance.
The
increasing attention his work is receiving, the public interest in his designs and the increasing relevance
of his objects might annoy his former professors at the popular Konstfack University in Stockholm. In
2000, they expelled him from the university with the argument that his work had nothing to do with modern
design. To this day, the decision remains incomprehensible. Perspectives have clearly changed; individuality
and independence have become the sustaining values that guarantee longevity. Whether you understand
his work, simply like it or reject it, his design expands the horizon of Scandinavian design, provides
food for thought and sparks discussion. These qualities alone can be an important aspect of object design
and are too often lacking in many products we see around us today.
Link:
www.lagombra.nu
