God Is In The Details…

 …Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe once stated, and looking at his sublime Barcelona Chair one must admit that the German architect didn’t leave much to chance. The funny thing about detail is that it, to a certain extent, stops being detail when you start focusing on it. This is precisely what Ditte Hammerstrøm has been doing since her graduation from the Danish Design School 15 years ago. And in Ditte Hammerstrøm’s universe, God is a probably a She…

With the words of Mette Strømgaard Dalby, the former director of the Trapholt Museum: “The feminine decorations and colors are repeated in much of Ditte Hammerstrøm’s furniture and they help mark the fact that a generation of younger female designers has taken the lead with a vengeance. Without tending towards too many clichés, the women’s entry on the Danish design scene has created a new departure with regard to decoration.”

Can a detail be the main thing? Can decoration constitute the core? Ditte Hammerstrøm answers in the affirmative, which may seem paradoxical, yet it is nevertheless one of the main pillars of her design. The exhibition « For the Love of Detail » focuses on the role of detail in the creative process, which I believe is key to understanding Ditte Hammerstrøm’s originality. Her works are all revealing of the fundamental importance of detail, not as an addition to an already existing structure, not as an ornament, but as a trigger of new shapes, of functions and emotions: Detail in the sense of singularity, not accessory.

Soft curves & hard edges

Recognized as an important pioneer of the new Nordic design scene, Ditte Hammerstrøm has been awarded several prizes, such as the “Walk The Plank Award” in 2008 and the “Finn Juhl Architecture Prize” in 2011, and she is without a doubt one of the most interesting Scandinavian designers today. Ditte Hammerstrøm’s excellence has many facets, but one of her most original contributions is her careful attention to upholstery.

Here, upholstery should be understood in its widest possible sense, as the surface of the furniture.

Of course, to work with upholstery from an artistic perspective is not a new phenomenon. Yet even when it comes to important design pieces, upholstery often serves a functional and/or decorative role as something meant to be comfortable, resistant and/or beautiful. In most cases, upholstery is treated as an accessory to the piece of furniture, accompanying it rather than defining it. In Ditte Hammerstrøm’s furniture it is the other way around. Here the aesthetics of the surface is central and determining.

Taking a closer look at Ditte Hammerstrøm’s creative vocabulary, the cord or string seems to be a key component and forms a connecting thread, as it were. Already in her early works, such as the Bistro Light (2005), Wrinkle (2005) or the Loungescape (2005), the string appears: like a landscape the daybeds merge into each other in delicate green and yellow nuances, tied together. In a raw, yet sophisticated way, Ditte Hammerstrøm uses the string as an important technical devise in fixing the upholstery to the furniture. The gesture is free and bold and at the same time controlled. But the string also plays a more suggestive role as a trigger of playful associations.

With its lacings, the Bistro Light strongly recalls a corset; only this time, it is the upholstery and not the female body being tamed. The foam is left uncovered, without fabric, and the string is functional, decorative and suggestive – all at once. Instead of hiding the junctions, Ditte Hammerstrøm leaves them visible and enhances the beauty of attachment, literally as well as figuratively speaking.

The thin string becomes a thick rope in the work Bunch of Boxes (2008), a hanging cabinet. With an extraordinarily sculptural gesture, Ditte Hammerstrøm has eliminated all the traditional components of a piece of storage furniture – the back, front, top and legs – retaining only the essential: 10 storage boxes in various sizes suspended from the ceiling in black plaited ropes. The MDF boxes are coated with a thick luxurious lacquer, elevating this traditionally cheap material to a high level of nobility. The extreme attention to detail and the quest for exquisite craftsmanship, so perfect that it transcends even the poorest material, is remarkable.

The combination of luxurious craftsmanship and “cheap” materials finds another interesting expression in the works Wall Stools (2006) and Small Tall Stools (2007), where the plastic string, mainly known from the garden furniture of the 1970s, is inserted in the exquisite hand-crafted wood, like a punk version of intarsia. Here, the perfection is even greater underneath than on the top of the stools, something that recalls the Japanese crafts tradition.

The furniture’s tactile quality, with invisible details appealing as much to the fingers as to the eyes, is also a true heritage from the Danish golden age of handcrafted furniture design, but with a radical new twist.

In her latest work Side By Side (2014), three daybeds of different heights can be combined in various ways, working either together or separately. Each part focuses on rhythm and patterns made by repetition, and here, Ditte Hammerstrøm is once again experimenting with new types of sculptural upholstering. In Side By Side / Low Mohair the seat is made up of no less than 203 foam balls, each lavishly covered with exquisite mohair fabric. The exuberance of Low Mohair is counterbalanced by the Table-Bench with its quiet minimalistic surface and delicate plastic strings decoration, whereas the Side by Side / High Wool, indeed 62 cm tall, forms the third piece in this interesting furniture puzzle.

Furniture tends to group

As we have seen, the theme of repetition is prevalent in Ditte Hammerstrøm’s body of work, where benches, boxes and stools multiply and make new forms together. The concentration on pattern and rhythm becomes evident in her works Out of Focus (2010 – 2014). Here, several archetypical chairs in white lacquered steel are blending into one, creating an optical illusion of blurriness that makes it difficult to determine where one chair begins and the next one ends, just like, in the words of the artist, a flock of zebras on the savannah…

Besides the sculptural richness of the work, Out of Focus can be seen as a metaphor for the alternative perspective proposed by Ditte Hammerstrøm. On what do we focus? How and why? When we gaze at a star in the sky, it disappears, but by changing our eye direction a bit, looking beside or next to it, it reappears in our field of vision.

Ditte Hammerstrøm’s design is conceptually strong, and her approach to design has often been likened to that of an anthropologist. Furniture tends to group in homes through their specific function, she says. The easy chair finds the floor lamp, the sofa finds the coffee table and the dining table the dining chairs. Ditte Hammerstrøm questions these automatic gatherings by deconstructing them and allowing similar types of furniture to group and form new patterns instead.

Apparently, God is not the only one hiding in the details; The Devil Is In The Details as well, according to another saying attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. A small error at the beginning can translate into a useless experiment at the end. Ditte Hammerstrøm definitely knows that. She knows why detail really matters.

Ditte Hammerstrøm

Born 1971, lives and works in Copenhagen.

EDUCATION
Education Danmarks Designskole, Institut for Produktdesign, Copenhagen 1994-2000.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Product Design, London 1999.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019
Crafted Matter, Cheongju Crafts Biennale, Korea. (Curator and Exhibition concept). / ARV, Munkeruphus,
Nordkystens Kunsttriennale 2019. / Skitser og Værker, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Copenhagen.
2018
Mindcraft18, Milan Design Week. (Curator and Exhibition concept). / The Salon Art + Design Show, New York,
Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Side by Side Out Side, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Trapholt. / PAD London,
Pavillion of Art & Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren.
2017
Threads & Fibers. Contemporary Scandinavian Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Side by Side Out Side, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Designmuseum Danmark. / The Salon Art + Design, Galerie Maria
Wettergren, New York. / PAD Paris, Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / PAD London,
Pavillion of Art & Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Design Miami-Basel, Galerie Maria Wettergren.
2016
Pitch Black, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Kongernes Lapidarium, Copenhagen. / The Salon Art + Design,
Galerie Maria Wettergren, New York. / PAD London, Pavillion of Art & Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren. /
Chart Art Fair-Chart Design, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. / Design Miami-Basel, Galerie Maria
Wettergren. / Danish Design Now, Designmuseum Danmark. / PAD Paris, Pavillon des Arts et du Design,
Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Art Genève, Galerie Maria Wettergren, Genève. / PETITE, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn
Exhibition. Maison du Danemark, Paris.
2015
For the Love of Detail. Separatudstilling, Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris. / Building Blocks. Vandalorum,
Värnamo, Sweden. / Gathering. Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan. / Kvinderne i dansk møbeldesign,
Trapholt. / PETITE, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition. Øregaard Museum, Hellerup. / PAD London, Pavillion
of Art & Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Design Miami-Basel, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / The Salon Art +
Design, New York. / PAD Paris, Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Galerie Maria Wettergren.
2014
Gathering. Design Museum Holon, Israel. / Master & Icons. Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo. / Master &
Icons. The National Museum, Brasília. / Danske Antibodies. Trapholt, Kolding.
2013
The Biennale for Craft and Design, Rundetaarn, Copenhagen. / Galerie Maria Wettergren, Design Miami-
Miami. / Trapholts samling anno 2013, Trapholt, Denmark. / Scandinavian Women Designers, Galerie Maria
Wettergren, Paris. / DOBBEL, Illums Bolighus, Copenhagen.
2012
Sculptural Furniture, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen. / Urban Play,
Søndre havn, Køge, Denmark. / Design Miami, Basel, Galerie Maria Wettergren.
2011
Finn Juhl Architectural Prize, Ordrupgaard, Denmark. / OVERLAP, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen. /
Design Miami, Miami Galerie Maria Wettergren. / Crafts of Europe, EUNIQUE 2011, Karlsruhe. / PAD London
and Paris, Galerie Maria Wettergren. / WhiteOut, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Tokyo Design Center,
London Design Festival, Riga Art Space.
2010
Unexpected Guests, Yesterday’s houses, Today’s design, Museo Bagatti Vasecchi, Milan. / WhiteOut,
Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Ordrupgaard, Denmark. / Would You Mind? Mindcraft 10, Salone
Internazionale del Mobile, Milan. / MomentumDesign, Punkt Ø. Norway. / Danish Contemporary Design,
Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris. / Facon, plads, kulør, Rundetaarn, Copenhagen.
2009
Loungescapes, Solo exhibition, Trapholt, Kolding, Denmark. / Skitsch, Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan.
/ Craft is Golden, Mindcraft, Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan.
2008
Walk the Plank Award 2008, Sole exhibition, Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen. / Mindcraft, Salone
Internazionale del Mobile, Milan / Fifty fifty, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Rundetaarn. / Mindcraft.
100% Design. London. / ‘forget me not’, Mint. London. / Furniture for when you are old. SE 07, KunstCentret
Silkeborg Bad.
2007
The Biennale for Craft and Design, Trapholt, Kolding, Denmark. / United Colours of Drud & Køppe, Drud &
Køppe Gallery, Copenhagen. / Second Skin, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Museum of Fine Arts,
Kaohsiung. / Made in Denmark, 100% Design, London. / Drud & Køppe Gallery, Collect, London. /
Sofastykker, Sophienholm, Lyngby, Denmark. / Func Art, Drud & Køppe Gallery, Copenhagen. / Furniture For
When You Are Old, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Fabrikken for Kunst at Design, Copenhagen
2006
Honey I’m home. Dansk Design Center, Copenhagen. / Drud & Køppe Gallery, SOFA, Chicago. / The Milky
Way Confrontation, Designblok 06, Prague, Czech Republic. / ENTRY 2006. Zollverein, Essen, Germany. /
How to love juicy jam & jags. Drud & Køppe Gallery, Copenhagen / Vennelyst! Cabinetmakers’ Autumn
Exhibition, Frederiksberg Have, Copenhagen. / Playspots. Meldahls Smedie, KADK, Copenhagen. / Wallpaper’s Global Edit exhibition, Salone Internazionale
del Mobile, Milan.
2005
REAL Craft in Dialogue, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden. / New Scandinavian Design San Francisco,
Toronto, New York. / Polstergeist, Copenhagen International Furniture Fair. / Danish Designers’ Workshop,
IMM Cologne. / Furniture Haute Couture, The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition. Smålands Konstarkiv,
Varnamo, Sweden.
2004
The Biennale for Craft and Design, Trapholt and Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Denmark / Nomade.
Scandinavian Furniture Fair, Copenhagen. / Furniture Haute Couture, The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition,
Danish Design Centre, Copenhagen. / Walk the Plank II. Kulturhuset, Stockholm. Maison du Danemark, Paris.
Trapholt Museum, Kolding.
2003
Scandinavian Design Beyond the Myth. Europe 2003-2007. / Derfor! Paustian, Copenhagen. / Walk the Plank
II. Tokyo Designers Block, Japan. / Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen. / SE REMIX, Cabinetmakers’
Autumn Exhibition,Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen.
2002
Skin: Surface, Substance and Design. Cooper-Hewitt, New York. / Thingstead, Cabinetmakers’ Autumn
Exhibition, Designmuseum Danmark and Form & Design Center, Malmö / Culture Factory. Scandinavian
Furniture Fair, Copenhagen. / Element 2001. Dansk Design Center, Copenhagen.
2001
Life Space, The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen.
2000
Graduation show, Øksnehallen, Copenhagen. / Three forms of Light, Designers Block, London.

PRIZE & AWARDS
2018 Danish Design Award, nominated for the exhibition MINDCRAFT18
2015 Påskønnelseslegat. Danmarks Nationalbanks Jubilæumsfond af 1968.
2011 Finn Juhl Architectural Prize 2011.
Award from the Danish Arts Foundation for curation of the exhibition OVERLAP in cooperation with Jørgen
Carlo Larsen.
2010 Niels-prisen, Niels Matthiasen Mindelegat.
2009 Danish Arts Foundation three year Working Grant.
2008 Walk the Plank Award.
2004 Danish Arts Foundation, awarded for Sofa Set.
Winner of Bo Bedre design prize, for the furniture Soft Shaker.
2001 Winner of Bo Bedre design prize, Element 2001.
Winner of Birka Ljusdesignstipendium.

GRANTS
2004, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 Danish Arts Foundation, work grant.
2000, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018 Danmarks Nationalbanks Jubilæumsfond af 1968.
2014, 2018 Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Craft and Design, Project Funding.
2008, 2010, 2013 Margot og Thorvald Dreyers Fond.
2010, 2013 Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond.
2013 Gurli og Paul Madsens Fond.
2013 Danish Crafts.
2008, 2013 Ellen og Knud Dalhoff Larsens Fond.
2008, 2010 OAK Foundation Denmark.
2009 Danish Arts Foundation, three-year work grant.
2005, 2009 Montana Møbler.
2008 Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond.
2008 Bestsellerfonden.
2008 Harlang & Toksvig Fondet.
2004, 2008 Træfonden.
2006 Embassy of Denmark, Prague.
2002 Danish Arts Foundation, two-year work grant
2001 Birka Energi Ljusdesignstipendium.
2000 Kgl. Danske Ambassade, London.
2000 Kong Christian Den Tiendes Fond.
1996 Designfonden.