07.05.22
Excerpt: Exhibition
Hanna Dis Whitehead’s Colorful, Constantly Mutating Objects Are On View in Iceland
An amalgamation of materials and what she refers to as “drawer ideas,” the exhibition “Spin” by Icelandic artist and designer Hanna Dis Whitehead turns experimental objects on their head while bringing lost thoughts from her school years back to life (giving them a new “spin,” as it were. Presented by the Gerðarsafn Art Museum in Kópavogur, Iceland, the exhibition showcases a selection of colorful and exuberant pieces, from a wonderfully offbeat lamp adorned with geometric, hand-cut tiles and pine, to ecstatic, slumping goblets, candy-like kettles, painterly vases, and hopsack-ish fruit bowls. With piped-frosting ceramic features, playful details are in no short supply in this series of whimsical works.
In her new collection, Dís Whitehead allows elements of her design “to travel between surfaces, objects, and out into the space they occupy” — in other words, she’s experimented here with turning parts of what was formerly a ceramic vessel into a nightstand, or the color-blocked bars of what was once a sculpture into a waste can. It’s a fluid and transfixing translation that the designer has become known for since her graduation from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011. “In recent years, I’ve developed methods that completely changed my view of previous projects, so there was something exciting about looking back,” she says. “You will see, for example, a continuation of some project from this year in this series, but also a completely new development in my final project from my studies 10 years ago. These are the ideas that you put in a drawer and give yourself time for.” “Spin” is on view through August 5.