Exhibited in The Design Museum Denmark (Copenhagen) until Dec 2024
I was a panelist alongside Curator Pernille Stockmarr and two other panelists at the DesignMuseum Danmark in November 2022. After the panel Pernille asked me to work with her to populate an area of a new exhibition she was working on…
‘The Future Is Present’ opened at DesignMuseum Danmark in Copenhagen, Denmark June 2022 and was so popular that its run was extended beyond the planned end date of June 2023, to December 2024. The dedicated Craftivist Collective room posed the question: can activism be gentle and effective in creating positive change?
Ripple effects:
Globally renowned Canadian designer Bruce Mau (above left) visited the exhibition with his wife and business partner Bisi and loved our room! And when Queen of Denmark Margrethe II visited, I was told that she spent the most time in our room, admiring our work.
Carolin E, Fashion Designer and Lecturer who visited the exhibition contacted me to say:
“I saw the craftivists manifesto in the Design Museum in Copenhagen and am totally into the topic! I am a fashion designer and lecturer for 20 years now and once had a sustainable handknit label in Berlin. I am now planning to give a course at the University of Flensburg, Germany, in the upcoming term, for future primary school teachers about Craftivism in a mixed practice and theory project. Your book will be mandatory lecture.”
The Craftivist Collective Cabinet of Curiosities: intriguing activism at the DesignMuseum Danmark
Reflections on ‘The Future is Present’
Interview with Pernille Stockmarr: by Rin Hamburgh:
I asked Pernille Stockmarr, Curator and Head of Research at Designmuseum Danmark, if she would be willing to speak to Rin Hamburgh - a former journalist who I’ve worked with for many years and who is now one of my patrons too - and tell her about why she asked me to get involved and what impact the exhibition has had. Here’s what she had to say.
Why did you ask Sarah to be involved in this exhibition?
I first met Sarah on a panel debate about the future of crafts. I had been following her work for several years and had found it so fascinating because it’s at the core of how we can broaden the discussion of what design is today. What I found as we were on this panel together is that I could feel there was something about the way she looks at life and at crafts, her whole perspective, that just resonated with me.
At the time I was developing an exhibition called THE FUTURE IS PRESENT, around the themes of Human, Society and Planet+. We wanted to look forwards rather than backwards, which is what you’d usually expect from a museum, and ask, what kind of future do we want? So rather than giving answers, the exhibition is about asking questions.
I wanted Sarah to be part of the exhibition because her work is so different from what we would usually show at our exhibitions. In one way, it broadens the notion of design and also it recalls what I think of as the purpose of craft. Craft as a political tool, as identity, as mental wellbeing. It brings all of these things together.
What did Sarah create and how have people interacted with it?
Sarah created a craftivism room, with some craft pieces, the Craftivist Collective manifesto, and a video. Even just passing the room, you could feel that there was something different here. People stop and want to take a look. I’ve seen so many people taking photos, reading the manifesto, sitting and watching the video.
We had an anthropologist come in to do some observation studies and she noticed that Sarah’s exhibition was one of the ones where people stopped for a longer period of time. And they also started having more intense conversations, which was a very big part of what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to start people reflecting on their own being in the world.
Sarah’s work shows that we are all co-creators. We are all contributing to our future and it doesn’t have to look one way. I really like the way that she creates communities in a very different way to how you usually think of communities and relationships.
What do you think is so important about Sarah’s work with Craftivism and Gentle Protest?
I really do think Sarah's work and what she has to say is so important, which is why I wanted to show it to as many people as possible, so they could be inspired and take that with them into their daily life and maybe just start thinking differently. That was the whole idea about this exhibition, to create reflections and to let people start thinking of what they are doing in different ways.
I think she did that well by showing her pieces, which were very simple, humble things - pencils and small books and small pieces of cloth. It’s more down to earth and welcoming for people, they feel a connection. It’s not far away from them. They can think, “Oh ok, I could do that.” And also, on the other hand, think, “Wow, look what these small things have achieved and can achieve! I could be part of this movement.” That’s what I think is so interesting about this work.
Craft doesn't have to be done by very skilled people, and also it doesn’t have to be something we do in the home and never show anyone. It can be something that we use to achieve a purpose. So the focus is now on the work itself but also the process and what it creates in the world.
THE FUTURE IS PRESENT
June 19 2022 - December 31 2024
Design Museum Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Except from the exhibition website: “THE FUTURE IS PRESENT has three main themes: Human, Society and Planet+. The themes will present different questions, future scenarios, design examples and art installations - some suggest solutions while others are more speculative. A last theme ‘Imagining the future” will finalize the exhibition and show examples from the museum’s own collection of utopian dreams and past visionary designs that have influenced and shaped our world.”