Contemporary Metal Artist & Object Maker

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Material and craft used to be so important to me and to my identity. Now I tend to see the material and level of craft mastery as different colours in my box of crayons. It is both completely unimportant and so important at the same time.

Art, and probably especially craft, have a narcissistic core but loving what you do can be a powerful driving force. On the other hand, if you lack the ability to take a step back and reflect on what you have done, then you are in trouble.

Art and craft start with tradition and material. They can be mined by the contemporary maker to answer why, what, how and for whom.[/su_column]

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How makers deal with process is up to them, as long as they do it. If all of the experimentation goes on in the realm of ideas, it is very probable that when the concept finally enters the material world it will be seriously flawed.

How to deal with the pure joy of making? Is it ever possible or okay that this might be enough for the maker, and the viewer is left to fill the object with content and context? Or would this just end up being a case of pareidolia, the mind perceiving a pattern where it doesn’t exist?

(Part of a dialogue with Damian Skinner. Read the full text here. Photos by: Christian Habetzeder.)[/su_column][/su_row]

 

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Tobias Birgersson — Contemporary Metal Artist & Object Maker
Öbackavägen 15, 168 39 Bromma, SWEDEN
tobias.birgersson@lod.nu — Phone: +46 70 759 44 92