The award-winning online magazine The Vessel by the ECA member Norwegian Crafts has just launched its eleventh issue. Titled GARDEN, this edition is the second in a special three-part series. It sits between their previous exploration of the home and their upcoming focus on the studio.
The Garden as a Site of Exchange
Guest edited by artists Magdalena Kotkowska and soso brafield, the issue reimagines the garden. The garden becomes a living studio. It acts as a dynamic site of exchange between materials, stories, and bodies. The editors investigate how craft practices often mirror the natural rhythms of tending, growing, and harvesting. They show us how deeply we rely on a reciprocal relationship with the environments that surround us.
A Woven Narrative of Botany and Craft
The issue reads like an interconnected conversation. it offers essays and interviews that explore the profound intersection of botany and craft from multiple angles. Adine Lexow dives into Frida Hansen’s pioneering botanical tapestries, while Nicola Robey takes us inside Barbara Hepworth’s intimate relationship with her garden studio.
The publication also features interviews with contemporary makers Kristine Træland and Petra Dalström. Marius Moldvær’s essay titled Making without Breaking explores how plants carry historical and cultural memory through the practices of artists Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, Reyes Santiago Rojas, and Sissel M Bergh.
The issue offers a quiet space to reflect on the nature of our materials.
photo: Norwegian Crafts