Category: Art

“The pieces I use are often accidents or became redundant at some point in industrial production.”To create his objects, the sculptor exclusively works with found stones, which he retrieves from factories and old quarries. “Marble has been widely used in Greece for thousands of years. People have been working with it a lot, and you can find it everywhere. The pieces I use are often accidents or became redundant at some point in industrial production.” In his practice, Psychoyos frequently employs the ends of marble slabs, sliced at irregular angles, remnants from cut-outs, or fragments of broken blocks, all of which bear unique marks of imperfections. “I barely modify the pieces after I bring them to my studio. I like the traces of humans, machines, and the natural marks on the rocks. The essence of my work lies in observing those elements and balancing them in a way that makes sense.” Suddenly, a smooth, machine-cut marble piece forms a bench when paired with a rough, unpolished rock. Once discarded, cylindrical stones function as components of tables, and rounded marble blocks are combined with a hand-hammered stone and translated into a chair.

The combination of these contrasting qualities results in a raw and rebellious aesthetic—an aspect that doesn’t overly concern the artist, however. What intrigues him is how the objects make us move within a space. “I like that my works are quite heavy and that their position cannot be easily changed. Through that, they challenge us to navigate differently around them and break a certain pattern,” he shares. “What interests me is our ability as humans to adapt to spaces and the objects within them. It is like imagining being on a field with one tree. You would go under this tree to seek shade rather than planting a new one somewhere where you think it might fit better and then wait another twenty years for it to grow … That is also how I like to look at my objects.”

Her “Cross-Polination” workgroup builds upon this profound study of prehistoric ceramics. It is a series of vases with a simple base and playful handles reminiscent of plant leaves, twigs, and other smooth, natural shapes. Nehra was inspired to create these objects not only by prehistoric pottery but also by the work of Karl Blossfeldt, a German photographer known for his precise depictions of nature. His almost sculptural plant images influenced the shapes of the vases, adding another layer of storytelling to the pieces.

One of Nehra’s main fascination with clay is its ability to function as a carrier of knowledge. “If you think about it, clay is such a futuristic material. So many things that we know today come from the shards of vessels that are thousands of years old,” the artist tells us with sparkles in her eyes. “That made me think that my work will also live on in future times, and led me to look at ceramics from a different angle,” she reveals.

“With my work, I want to pull people away from the screens and invite them to embrace tactility. In a world where everything is becoming increasingly virtual, the notion of touch gets lost,” Nehra explains. “But I am not averse to what is happening in technology. Quite the contrary, I am very interested, and I firmly believe that one cannot dismiss technological advancements,” she adds. Elaborating on the philosophy that builds the foundation of her work, the artist continues: “In my opinion, one must try to comprehend and look for personal ways of interacting with those technological developments, and this is what I am trying to do with my work. I like this clash of using an ancient material and crafting method but mentally going in this futuristic place.”

“With my artworks, I don’t tell a story. I create a world in which the story takes place and lives.”Initially trained as a painter, Jospin, very early in her career, discovered sculpture as her medium. Turning to cardboard as her primary material allowed her to grow her works in scale. Today, the skillful construction of dreamlike environments and immersive sculptures stand at the core of Jospin’s practice. “With my artworks, I don’t tell a story. I create a world in which the story takes place and lives,” so Jospin. “The idea is that you go on your own journey inside the worlds I create. However, what happens on that journey is not up to me to decide. It is the spectator’s part of the story,” the artist tells us.

A recurring theme in Jospin’s work is the forest. Her immersive sculptures emerge from delicate assemblages of numerous trunks, branches, and twigs—details the artist meticulously cuts out of cardboard. Although filled with visual elements familiar to nature, Jospin’s works often have something mysterious about them. “A forest has a lot of symbolic meanings. What is most interesting for me is its depth. If you don’t know the forest, you can get lost in it, but if you know the forest, you can move within it—even at night,” the artist says in conversation with Ignant.

Through her works, Allen encourages viewers to appreciate the unnoticed, the understated, and the forgotten. In her series ‘Presence through Absence’, she explores the theme of absence and presence through empty theatres, seats, and sofas, or books left behind by an absent reader. Suggesting the past presence of a person, they leave the viewer wondering at their enigmatic emptiness and at who could have been interacting with the objects before leaving. Similarly, her most recent body of paintings, ‘Shadow Figures’, captures fleeting moments in time where a play of shadows defines the particular instant recorded. Depicting pared-back interior scenes featuring a tableau of silhouettes and shadows, here, the presence of someone is indicated only through their own shadow. “Shadows interest me immensely because they are silent and ephemeral,” shares Allen. “They are evocative, and like memories, they are a bit hazy. In a way, they are a minimal representation of our physical selves.” Encouraging free association and reflection, the shadows “are like the soul”, she adds, “always present with us, sometimes hidden, but revealed through our relationship with the light.”

If there was one word to describe Tyus, it would be imaginative—his imagination resting in both the movement and composition. “I was a rambunctious and inventive child,” he tells us over Zoom. “My favorite games were fighting invisible ninjas, making string installations using furniture and doorknobs, and coming up with dances with my babysitter, aunt, and sister.” Dance has always been part of his expression, even before he had the words to describe it or the knowledge to look for it. “I was a dance-maker from the age of six. There are several rather embarrassing home videotapes of me performing for my family,” he adds with a soft smile. The great thing about dance is that you don’t choose it, it chooses you. “When I was 11, doctors found out I had a bone disorder called Blount’s disease, which required a surgical operation that left my legs broken and held together with nails. The doctor suggested a rehabilitative physical activity: dance. I was instantly hooked—I had found my thing,” he shares.

“Dance became more than a sport to me. It became a spiritual act, one that I’m called to do by something greater than myself”Tyus began dancing full time at the age of 12, and slowly developed his dance into an artful construction of intense physicality, performed with an excellence and precision rarely found. “I started dancing as a competitive activity. I was trained in ballet, hip hop, and acrobatics. We competed against other studios across the US; I was exposed to some incredible dancers, and constantly pushed and inspired to be the best. This taught me the value of hard work and practice,” he explains. “After leaving the studio, I found myself surrounded by talents from all walks of life, who instilled in me new values on creativity, exploration, story-telling, and self-expression.” His intensive knowledge would later lead him to work for the Cirque du Soleil—an experience which he recalls as “the best job I ever had”—and for an unconventional dance company in the middle of Connecticut, the Pilobolus Dance Theater. “That’s when dance became more than a sport to me. It became a spiritual act, one that I’m called to do by something greater than myself,” he says. “Working at Pilobolus truly opened my eyes to the possibility of the moving arts,” he reflects; “it reignited me not just as a dancer but as a choreographer.”

Their latest exhibition in Copenhagen, ‘Royal Chambers—Home as Host, Host as Home’, did precisely that: it investigated our relationship with digital and natural developments, examining notions of life and living by way of sculpture, interactive installation, and visual media. “The project put our human gaze towards the digital and environmental shifts from a perspective and a world we wish to unfold, that of home,” explains Tim. “It explored different types of homes, offering a holistic perspective of human, non-human, and digital lives. It meditated on how digital technology is intertwined with the physical world through works that aim to expand what home and living mean,” he continues. The work ‘Wh331 0f 1!f3’, for example, highlights the vulnerability of our digital presence as we follow computer viruses navigating the wheel to attain digital nirvana. “The interactive installation ‘Nest of You’ instead draws parallels between the power of technology giants and giant queen ants in the context of society’s routine-based flows, which feed the giants,” explains Anny.
“‘Royal Chambers’ explored different types of homes, offering a holistic perspective of human, non-human, and digital lives”

Offering a broader, more integrated idea of home, care, and connection, the project highlights a more nuanced notion of life—one in which Earth becomes a home of a scale too difficult to decipher in its interwoven fullness, and the digital world becomes animal, soft, and peculiarly sensual, both highlighting and subverting the organic at the same time. “The project is to be extended into a book, which is to be released this spring,” Tim is proud to point out, revealing how themes of invisible life and structures in the digital space as well as in nature—including forces like microbes, technofossils, virus attacks, habitats, data harvesting, parasites, and more—will be further expanded. “The book will include essays from five contributing writers and unfold the term ‘home’ even more, as a multifaceted ecosystem.”

Ranging from paintings to sculptures, installations, furniture, and clothing, I G G’s work delves into the ambiguities of modern life, highlighting the complexity of human consciousness, hoping to disclose a heightened understanding of the self. With a signature style that can be described only as multifaceted and thought-provoking, the Ukrainian artist transforms materials, space, and time into intriguing, interactive, and sensorial artworks that invite contemplation and meditation. For the last installment of RIMOWA’s international traveling exhibition ‘As Seen By’, Goldman Gubin was asked to reinterpret the iconic RIMOWA suitcase and freely transform its aluminum sheets and spare parts according to his unique visual language. His contribution joined that of other 60 talented artists and designers, who have showcased their amazing creations in the show’s previous locations, including Shanghai, Paris, and Tokyo.

Pasquino found her love for ceramics on a trip to Japan, where she discovered the allure of simplicity and the beauty of handcrafted objects. Drawn to the endless potential of clay, she took up the craft as an outlet for creative expression. Slowly, she filled up her shelves with handmade pots and eventually left a career in hospitality to transition her passion into a full-time studio. Now a thriving ceramicist, today, Pasquino seeks the sensual simplicity she first encountered in the land of the rising sun, exploring the materiality and physicality of clay to create decorative pieces that feel timeless yet unexpected, all at once. 
“I aim to create works that do not stand out for their color or ornamental quality but rather for their raw materiality”
Harkening back to ancient traditions, her works—mostly spherical vessels and vases—are inspired by archaeological finds, the organic irregularities of rock formations, and her ongoing interest in the making process. Featuring flaws and cracks, Pasquino’s curvaceous pieces emphasize the imperfection and asymmetry that defines them, highlighting their allusion to nature through earthy colors and textures. Kept raw and somewhat primitive, they are nostalgic and poetic, conveying an unobtrusive, quiet beauty and spontaneity, much appreciated in today’s design world. The result of a slow and exacting process—from hand-building to glazing—the pieces are all one-off and exquisitely intricate, inviting the viewer to look at them repeatedly. Elegant and with a continued capacity to surprise, they question the function and delicacy of the material while exhibiting the artist’s boundless desire to understand and elevate the craft.