Page 26 - Architectural Digest - USA (February 2020)

DISCOVERIES

ONE TO WATCH
Hanna

Hansdotter

“This area has a long history of producing
glass,” the artist says of Småland, the
Swedish province where she keeps her
studio and hot shop. In the 18th century,
timber from dense local forests fueled
the furnaces that yielded assorted trea-
sures for the royal family. Today, the
region’s main manufacturers, Kosta Boda
and Orrefors, produce affordable table-
ware alongside car parts for Volvo. It’s
this multifaceted history that has inspired
Hansdotter’s work, which, she notes,
hovers “between craft and mass produc-
tion.” After training in the region, dubbed
the Kingdom of Crystal, she headed to
art school, where she experimented with
blowing molten glass into industrial iron
frameworks. These ad hoc molds would
imprint patterned, almost alien surfaces
onto her vessels, as the glass bulged and
oozed through openings in the grates.
“How can I make repetitive objects that are
still unique?” she asks, reflecting on her
process—a dynamic interplay between
heavy metal and slick, often mirrored glass
that she continues to explore. The answer,
Hansdotter notes, lies in the slump, which
translates to “chance” or “luck” in English
but, fortuitously, reads just as well in
Swedish. —HANNAH MARTIN

HANSDOTTER IN HER STUDIO IN SWEDEN.

DEBUT
COVER STORY

Holly Hunt has applied its
modern, all-American eye to its
first collection of wall coverings.
Launching at its Manhattan show-

room this month, the 118 patterns
range from shimmering panels to TOP: JONAS LINDSTRÖM; BOTTOM: WALL COVERINGS COURTESY OF HOLLY HUNT
natural silks to hand-painted wood
veneers. As JoAnnah Kornak,
the brand’s executive creative

director, says, “They’re really
art on the wall.” hollyhunt.com
—CARLY OLSON

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT CUMULUS SHIMMER,
LISBON VISTA, STEPPING UP, CORNERSTONE.

24 ARCHDIGEST.COM