Anton Alvarez

Artistic crafts have traditions. The knowledge of the hand is inherited from generation to generation, from master to apprentice, from teacher to student. Each artist finds his or her own language, but often within a framework of expectations regarding choice of materials, processing, scale etc. Unless you try to create your own craft, that is.

Anton Alvarez is a trained carpenter and designer. Already during his studies, he began to experiment with his manufacturing process to see if it could become part of the work — or even superior to the work. Instead of solely designing, manufacturing, and refining individual objects, he constructed a machine with which the entire creation could take place, in front of an audience. With the first machine, he wrapped miles of brightly coloured thread around wood and other materials, resulting in unique furniture and architectural elements.

Alvarez’s driving force is to constantly develop how a work can come into existence. Over the last ten years, he has developed different machines that form the basis of everything he creates. He brings them on trips and works with them in front of visitors in exhibitions in different parts of the world. Neither the machines nor Alvarez can fully control the end result, an unpredictability that gives life to each work.

For the exhibition here at Vandalorum, Alvarez has brought a monumental self-made extrusion machine, to use for processing 7,000 kg of clay. Specially designed nozzles and varying speeds affect its randomness. The exhibition is a full-scale experiment with clay works in a size that far exceeds Alvarez’s previous production, but also the scale we know from the world of ceramics.

During the first weeks of the exhibition, the audience is welcome to experience the production live. After that, the process can be followed in documented form in the catalog and as a film in the Form Studio to your left.

Anton Alvarez (b. 1980 in Sweden, grew up in Sweden and Chile) is educated at the Royal College of Art in London, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and Stenebyskolan in Dals Långed. He has been named Artisan of the Year by Residence Magazine and is represented in the collections of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, the Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft in Gothenburg, and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Thanks to: Estrid Ericsons stiftelse, Stiftelsen Längmanska kulturfonden, Golvabia, Proton Lightning, Vandalorums partners, Värnamo kommun, Region Jönköpings län, Kulturrådet

^{Photo: Isak Berglund Mattsson-Mårn}