Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.12.2013, Page 24

Art | Inspired by a glacier
24The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 15 — 2013
Melting kittens, radiators that blush red when hot, clocks that stop time—welcome to the
weird and wonderful world of Icelandic designer Þórunn Árnadóttir. After finishing her
MA in product design at the Royal College of Arts in London in 2011, she moved back to
her hometown of Reykjavík where she has been busy working on new designs. Amongst
them is her newest PyroPet, ‘Kisa,’ a kitten-shaped candle that melts to reveal a charred
aluminium skeleton.
Issue 18 — 2013 Design
Over the years, Þórunn has received nu-
merous awards for her product designs,
most recently being selected this year
by Icon Magazine as one of 50 talents
shaping the future. We met up with her
at Spark Design Space, where she works
when she’s not teaching product design
at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and
ceramic design at the Reykjavík Visual
Arts School.
You recently launched a Kickstarter
campaign to fund your PyroPet proj-
ect, and in just 10 days you raised
more than double your goal of 40,000
USD. Did you anticipate such rapid
success?
Not at all. I showed the PyroPet se-
ries two years ago in Milan and after that
people posted photos of it on some blogs.
Then it recently exploded on Tumblr. I
didn’t know it was a sellable product be-
cause I thought it was a silly idea. I found
it surprising when loads of people were
actually interested in buying it.
Where does the idea come from?
When I was at the Royal College
of Arts I was working on the theme of
losing something and I was thinking
about objects, such as candles, which
just disappear after they melt. So I was
thinking, what is the purpose behind
the candle? I was fascinated by how
we make them in all sorts of different
shapes, but they always just melt away.
I wanted to make something more of it.
Why did you choose the colours pink
and grey? Will there be other colours
available later?
I like the contrast between the cheesy
pink colour and the metal skeleton. A lot
people find it difficult to buy something
pink so they’ve asked for black, but I think
it’s too dark. Light grey still works.
Will you be including other animals in
the PyroPet series?
That’s the idea, to keep adding to
it. I’ve almost got a bird ready now called
Phoenix. That will be launched later.
We’ve got the first prototypes ready.
When will the production of the can-
dles start?
January or February. We’re starting
to take orders from shops now.
Tell me about your Sasa Clock, which
is also a necklace.
Sasa is Swahili and it describes
the concept of time. In a lot of African
countries there is a different attitude to-
wards time. Of course they have clocks,
but they’re not used to relying so much
on clocks as we are. For them it’s more
natural to live in the moment and not
plan everything down to minutes and
seconds. For example, in Ethiopia you
wouldn’t say it’s 5:22. That would be
too specific. They have a more relaxed
concept of time there. So the Sasa Clock
has an element of African time, being a
necklace that you can take off and for-
get about the time altogether or you can
use it to tell time, but it’s not more ac-
curate than five minutes.
How did you come up with that?
I really like to push myself into think-
ing differently about objects. What is a ra-
diator? Does it resemble something else,
like a vascular system? Then I link these
two things together and see what hap-
pens. Can the house be a living organ-
ism? That’s how I came up with the idea
for my Sasa clock. I was thinking about
whether there is another way that we tell
time, and if it is different in other cultures
than it is in Iceland.
So what’s next for you?
I’m actually working on two other
projects at the moment. One is a proj-
ect in East Iceland in collaboration with
three other artists. The project is called
Austurland Designs From Nowhere. We
are working with local materials and pro-
duction in East Iceland. We’re making the
products from materials such as stone,
seaweed, driftwood, fishing nets and
antlers. We’re showing them at Spark
Design Space during DesignMarch next
spring and the plan is to go to the London
Design Festival after that. I can’t say what
we’re making yet.
The other is a Christmas window dis-
play for the Geysir shops in Reykjavík and
Akureyri. It has to do with jólakötturin, or
the Yule Cat, who is the Christmas fashion
police. It will be launched mid-November
when the Icelandic designer Erna Einars-
dóttir launches her new clothing line. The
Yule Cat will be wearing clothes from her
collection.
The Book Cover For 'Síðasti Elskhuginn'
Melting Kittens And Imprecise Clocks
We visit designer Þórunn Árnadóttir
at Spark Design Space
Words
Kristján Leitma
Alísa Kalyanova
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