Editor

Page 5 of 6

27/07/201828/07/2018

AIKA exhibition in Helsinki

My new exhibition will open soon in Helsinki – and it’s getting hotter and hotter at the glass studio whilst finishing the massive glass sculptures for the show. The theme of the exhibition is Time (in Finnish Aika). Time is a puzzle until it is captured inside glass as an optical illusion.

The exhibition place in Glass Gallery Mafka & Alakoski is actually very special to me: We have been working side by side for years, so it’s great to “bring my glass back home”! Marja and Kari have became my dear friends during our collaboration, so the exhibition is also showing how important it is in the world of art to work together!

Sini Majuri with glass sculptures for Aika exhibition. — Aika exhibition will open 8.8.18 at Glass Gallery Mafka & Alakoski, Iso roobertinkatu 19 Helsinki

Process — The first sculptures are ready and being cold worked at the studio.

Time is the Chapter Five from the glass cartoon story that has been touring the World the past years. One piece from The Flying Boat just got back from New York. It’s great to exhibit the new glass narrative with some of my earlier works. The inspiration of the Time is in old storied from Karelia region of Finland. For example, one of the stories is about the origin of the world.

Process of the exhibition pieces is unique. Each sculpture is handmade in Riihimäki

Theme of the exhibition is time. — Theme of the exhibition is Time. It’s about stories collected from people who have their roots in Karelia, and the positive outlook on life. One backround story is a theory of the origin of the World.

TIME
I look at the sea. This familiar infiniteness, I have stayed on its shores
countless times. Still – disconnected from time.
I contemplate how some moments are the most meaningful, how they
can define your whole person. For me time is an invisible companion.
We dive through it, we navigate through it with the help of our memory.
Time smooths its own corners, hides the details of changes.
I have wanted to give form to the invisible. Even if it was a mere whisper.

Sini Majuri, Aika – Time

Gallery Mafka & Alakoski

Iso roobertinkatu 19, Helsinki

8.8 – 8.9. 2018

03/05/201805/05/2018

New York, Unknown Territories

Unknown Territories exhibition in Usagi Gallery shows 30 carefully selected limited edition pieces from 13 countries. The show proposes an exploration of places, stories and cultures hiding behind every design object. Uncovering the historical, cultural and social context of the exhibits makes us see them beyond their aesthetics. They become flesh and blood storytellers of the world they were born in.

DP presents unique design pieces of leading edge designers from Europe, Asia, Middle East, South and North America transforming Usagi Gallery into a place where cultures, knowledge, and possibilities are exchanged.

The Rain The Flying Boat-story by glass artist Sini Majuri is a cartoon made of glass and a story of transparent moments. Rain is a single scene from a the story that is immortalized inside blown glass. The stories are blown between layers of glass by using a century-old Swedish Graal technique. The layered images are created layer by layer during a slow process that takes months.

“Every object reflects a scene of a narrative that follows the logic of a dream,”

Multiple image layers create surreal and dreamlike visuality in the works. The thick and heavy glass gives interesting optical properties to the dream scenes as the illustrations seem to move and distord as they are observed from different angles: Face of a woman looks sad when looked from above and angry when looked from behind. You can also see under and behind the image layers, there might be something hidden behind a window or deep into the woods in a thick forest. Rain is one of the main themes in this story about a woman that realizes that she is dreaming and don’t want to wake up. There are four individual image layers on top of each other inside every sculpture.

Date(s)
05/19/2018 – 05/23/2018

Location
Usagi Gallery
163 Plymouth St
Brooklyn

13/03/201817/03/2018

Design Pier Hong Kong

I was invited to the annual Design Pier 2018 exhibition in Hong Kong. It’s wonderful to be one of the 20 young talents that are highlighted in the show! This year Finland has a special role in the exhibition: we have two designers in it. I’m so happy to represent Finland with Lincoln Kayiwa! The idea in the exhibition is that each object tells a story – True tales by design.

I will exhibit two very opposite projects; The Jungle collection and Icebergs. The contrasts in nature and the way they create harmony was what I desired to capture in the Jungle collection. The rhythm of the glass making process ensures that each object has a unique colour play inside the glass. The movement of the glass creates vivid illusions in thick material that come to life when the object is illuminated. The Jungle collection is also introduced in European Design Fairs in Munich, Hamburg, Gorinchem, Stockholm and Frankfurt by DutZ Design.

design pier 2 — Glass mountains has been exhibited in Scandinavian Pavilion of The Interior Lifestyle Tokyo Japan 2017 and in Designboom Pavillion in Toronto Interior Design Show 2018.

Stories are fundamental to human existence. Stories structure our thinking, the way we live our lives and make sense of our experiences. Objects tell stories too. Stories of the culture they come from, stories of the people who dreamed them, their struggles and their success. Stories of a creative process that formed them, the materials they are made up from. Stories of how they transformed human environments.

Design Pier’s new exhibition guides its guests into the world of creation and presents twenty international cutting-edge designers and design brands whose products connect with us on an emotional level because they have a story to tell.

Finncham

Design Pier Exhibition
28th – 31st March
Opening 27 March at 7 PM
Lanson Place Hotel,
133 Leighton Road,
Causeway Bay,
Hong Kong

09/03/201816/03/2018

Bukowskis auction

The Helsinki Today auction opens today at Bukowskis Finland! The auction is the only one of its kind in Finland and presents the very best of Nordic contemporary art and design. It’s possible to bid also online until 19 March! I’m so happy to be part of this wonderful contemporary art exhibition with a collection of glass pieces from past years!

Here are some pieces from the auction that are especially dear to me. By clicking the images you can also visit the auction pages.

10995240_fullsize kopio — Aino is made with 100 years old graal technique where the images are drowned inside the glass. This piece has special value for me, because there are for example our families coat of arms hidden in it. There are also many details that can only be seen from right angle. Thick glass gives interesting optical properties to glass. Aino has been exhibited in Toronto, London and Ohio.

10996298_fullsize — This light sculpture “Kaamos” is one of my favourite works from past years. It’s inspired by winter and how light is reflected from the snow. The unique piece is a combination of free formed glass and painted wood.

10995247_fullsize — When the birds fly low is a mixture of heavy bubbles and hazy painting. I wanted the piece to have a mysterious feeling and a lot of movement. The technique is called pulegoso, bubbly glass.

10995245_fullsize — Harpy is one of my favourite themes in glass. It is a creature that is half woman and half bird. Harpy is one of my first graal pieces that are a part of a narrative that continues from one sculpture to another.

10995258_fullsize — This vase is a part of the Jungle collection prototypes. I wanted the color to mimic the movement of a vawe.

10995235_fullsize — In this piece I wanted to capture the moment when the storm is rising. How the air is heavy and wind starts to get intense.

10995221_fullsize — Rain is part of a narrative about a flying boat. It shows a moment when a woman is trying to capture the rain.

10995220_fullsize — In this sculpture a woman is sleeping and her breth becomes visible.

21/01/201816/03/2018

IDS Toronto

My new glass mountain series “ICEBERG” was exhibited in Interior Design Show Toronto 2018. Ice themed interior design object has four glacial color variations that can be arrayed into a landscape like installations. I wanted the ice peaks to have multiple surface textures that also create interesting optic illusions and reflections. I believe that the shadow of the object is important when the medium used is glass. When the natural light is gleaming trough the glass, shadow looks like water.

My exhibition was a part of juried Designboom Mart Pavillion that highlights new and fresh innovations in design. I’m so happy that the exhibition was also picked as one of the five must sees by Toronto Guardian! The article was such a great help for reaching design folks and companies from Toronto area! I also had a opportunity to meet lovely Corinne Cécilia who wrote an article in Maison & Demeure! It is wonderful how many people remembered the article and come to say hi and see the icebergs! Article on the Finnish Embassy’s webpages was also such a great way to reach out to local Finnish community. I was feeling so welcomed and luckily took enough Fazerin Sininen chocolates for all the Finns!

P1240114 — The IDS Toronto was held in Metro Toronto Convention Centre that was just under the CN Tower.

The trip to Toronto was full of new interesting connections and great design! My absolute favourite at the show was amazing concrete planter by VAKO design. It was a great example of a fresh design idea with a modern twist!

I’m also so happy to see how the local people appreciated the design philosophy behind the ice mountains! Many visitors also saw a connection between the icebergs and the Group of seven landscape paintings. As the mountains found new homes I really felt that the combination of new shapes and colors was a success.

Did you miss your own Iceberg? It is now also possible to order them to Canada via message.

04/01/201817/03/2018

Glass Axis, Ohio

Dreams drowned in glass exhibition opened at Glass Axis’s Kennedy Galleries in September 2017! The story explores the mixing up of the places, atmospheres and memories of which dreams are built. Each sculpture in the show was a scene from a narrative. Together, the pieces formed a modernized narrative captured in glass and rolled into one 3D design using the graal glassblowing technique.

During my visit to Columbus it was fun to teach graal glass workshop. In the workshop the students made experimental mixtures with 3D prints, silk screen transfers, metal sprays and free hand paintings on glass. See all the amazing works from the video below:

The workshop was in Glass Axis, Columbus Ohio.

The exhibition started with a glass blowing demonstration about graal technique.

P1160471 — In Ohio it was great to see places that had such a mystical feeling..

P1150069 — Karelia is a comic story inside blown glass. Each piece is a scene from a narrative that continues from sculpture to sculpture.

20/11/201715/12/2017

Future Classics: A Glass Vase Collection to Netherlands

It has been inspirational journey to design a line of luxury vases for Dutz Collection. The 9 object collection will tour European design fairs during 2018. As a Finnish glass designer it is a great joy to see that a series of high quality studio glass is introduced in commercial setting with a strong message: quality is value. Here is a glimpse to the first prototypes made in Riihimäki. The collection is inspired by the nature.

In this prototype I have wanted to capture the feeling that I have when I look at the nature, green treetops of old oaks. How the leaves are moving. How does it sound like. (Pics. Sini Majuri, Veikko Väänänen)

The premise of my glass design is to create objects that gain their value from the quality, design and material. My ambition has always been to create future classics. When I started to design the vase collection to Netherlands, I really wanted to capture the beauty of the glass material. I wanted the shapes to reflect serenity of the medium and to be weightless and strong at the same time.

The core of the collection is to create pieces that have soul: The vases are mouth blown and shaped by hand, signed and numbered. Each piece has unique color play inside the glass.

Sometimes a very simple object can became multi-dimensional, when you use glass medium. There is for example the visual layer of glass: how does the glass reflect, how will the colors look in different lighting. Above all there are also the historical layers of glass which comprice the origin of Finnish glass making and the rare knowledge behind the craftsmanship. It is interesting to contemplate the project from these perspectives and say once again: Quality is value!

Pic. Heidi-Hanna Karhu

On ollut kiinnostava projekti suunnitella hollantilaiselle Dutz Collectionille korkealaatuinen mallisto sisustuslasia. Yhdeksänesineinen kokonaisuus lähtee kiertämään eurooppalaisia design-messuja vuonna 2018. Suomalaisena lasimuotoilijana on ilo nähdä, kuinka Riihimäellä käsityönä valmistettua lasia viedään suurina erinä rohkeasti kaupallisille areenoille näin viestien: Laatu on arvoa!

Lasimuotoilussani lähtöajatuksena on aina ollut suunnitella esineitä, jotka kestävät aikaa: tulevaisuuden klassikoita. Harvinaislaatuisella käsityötaidolla veistetyt esineet viestivät alkuperän tärkeydestä, koska niissä käytetään puhtaita materiaaleja ja ne on suunniteltu ajatuksella materiaalin parhaita ominaisuuksia hyödyntäen, signeerattu ja numeroitu.

Kokonaisuuden teemana on luonto ja sen tunnelmat. Olen saanut suunnitteluuni inspiraation kotiseutuni vanhoista puista ja metsien äänimaisemista. Dutz Collectionin mallistossa esineet ovat massiivista, jopa veistoksellista lasia. Ne ovat muodoltaan samalla vahvoja ja keveitä. Joskus hyvin yksinkertainen muoto voi olla moniulotteinen, kun käytetään lasimateriaalia, koska lasin visuaalisuus heijastaa, peilaa ja antaa mahdollisuuden läpinäkyvyydellä leikittelyyn. Suupuhallettua lasimallistoa voi tarkastella myös suomalaisen lasinvalmistuksen historiaa vasten todeten: Laatu on arvoa!

28/06/201720/03/2018

Design adventure in Japan

It was a great experience to exhibit my first interior design objects in Tokyo. In many ways Japan is a logical place for Glass Mountains – because mountains have a special role in local culture. They can be seen even sacred. Therefore it was easy to explain the philosophy behind the design: that each object has a soul.

The Interior Lifestyle Tokyo design fair 2017 was held in Tokyo Big Sight that is the largest international convention venue in Japan. My glass design was a part of the Nordic Lifestyle exhibition in Scandinavian Pavilion.

The exhibition halls were beautiful and stylish. The show really was a good vantage point to Japanese design world. I noticed that most of the people spoke only Japanese so it was very important to have a expert interpreter. I was super lucky to have skilful Kanoko as my interpreter to help out!

The workers attached the wall sticker on the wall. It was also very interesting to see how a large show like this was created in a fast and accurate tempo!

The way the huge design fair was build up was quite spectacular to watch. First the halls were full of bubble wrap, hammers, power cords and ladders when thousands of exhibiters opened up their cargo boxes. But suddenly when the clock struck six every detail was precise, wall stickers and podiums on their accurate place and the design event was ready for the opening day.

It was great to get the glass mountains in the front page of the fair guide. It was a big help for reaching out interesting partners during the event!

P1120251 — I was happy to see, how people really understood the design philosophy behind the glass mountains: how each mountain is unique and has it’s own “soul”.

I was so happy to meet the ambassador of Finland and his wife. They also gave some good and cool hints for the future!

Vuoksi glasses are inspired by the melting ice. Each glass is unique like a snowflake.

When looking back this project has been in many ways a dream come true and all the pieces just magically clicked together. I have always wanted find ways to bring my design to the mysterious Japan. I got a great opportunity to start working together with my family company that also made it possible to start manufacturing glass mountains as a serial interior design object. It was also great to see how the local countryside fund in Suonenjoki jumped in to support our design journey. Glass mountains from a small countryside city travelled a great distance to Tokyo to find cool new opportunities! Thank you so much to Mansikka ry and Maaseuturahasto for supporting our design adventure in Japan!

Find more info from my new Facebook pages!

10/05/201704/01/2018

Glass Mountains

VUORI glass mountains are sophisticated interior design objects for elegant and modern spaces. Each unique peak is handcrafted in Finland with high standards. Mountains can be used as decoration objects and custom interior installations. The 2017 series is inspired by the Scottish Highlands. Textures, colors and the athmosphere of the glass pieces resonate the unparalleled scenery of the Highlands.

Glass mountains will be presented in ILT Interior Lifestyle Tokyo design fair in Nordic Lifestyle Pavillion in June 14 – 16. Come and visit the exhibition to find your own soulscape made from mouth blown glass!

作家Sini Majuri(フィンランド) フィンランドでz生まれたガラス・デザイン。ガラスの山々からなる、たったひとつだけのノルディックな景色を創りませんか？インテリア・デザインにソウルを！この山々は1000度の溶岩状の溶融硝子を、冷氷水の中に浸すことで造られています。

ILT interior lifestyle Tokyo

Nordic Lifestyle

West Hall 1, D-12

Sini Majuri: Vuori

June 14 – June 16

Tokyo, Japan

29/12/201630/12/2016

Glass adventures

I’m really looking forward to the year 2017 that is actually the 100-year anniversary of Finland. Many exciting new opportunities are awaiting for example in Ohio, Japan and England. The 100 year theme has inspired me to start a new narrative on glass that is based on Finnish national epic Kalevala. It will be a surreal and dreamlike story about independence and finding one’s true self.

When looking back I find that the year 2016 has been full of glass adventures. Last summer I had my first solo exhibition in Gallery G12 in Helsinki where I exhibited a glass story about a flying boat. Even there has been many expo’s before this, it was in a way my first step as a independent glass artist. That step was important to take, because a solo show gave the glass story harmony that it needed. After this the year got really busy; I had a change to travel around and see different kind of events, shows, fairs and festivals that were concentrated on design, glass and contemporary art.

G12 was my first solo show in Helsinki. It really opened many doors! — G12 was my first solo show in Helsinki. The exhibition was about a story told on glass.

I visited abandoned castle in Scotland while exhibiting in London. It is one of the places that inspired me to create a new story on glass that mixes up memories and places into fairytale scenes that follow dream logic.

Every exhibition in 2016 has been memorable: For example in Glasrijk Tubbergen it was delightful to see a small Dutch town full of modern glass. Art from multiple European masters were exhibited all around the town; in glass houses in the middle of the town square to magical illuminated glass forests. I travelled to Tubbergen with my fellow glass artists Marja Hepo-aho and Kari Alakoski. In November our group also had a great opportunity to show our art in beautiful Galerie De Lintelo, in Haaksbergen.

Many of the events I have taken part have been about contemporary art. This is why it was really refreshing to visit also Tendence fair in Frankfurt and immerse in a world of design. At the moment I’m concentrating on developing further some of my design objects, for example Polar Night-lamp. It would be cool to have a small lamp series in the future. Let’s see how it goes!

Open-air glass exhibition in Glasrijk tubbergen had a magical athmosphere.

Our group had lots of fun demonstrating in Leerdam.

I'm hoping to create new versions from my lamps. — I’m hoping to create new versions of my lamps. Something simple and predigested.

During the X-mas holidays I have had many surprises in my letterbox: Design magazines that I have given interviews have travelled to my breakfast table from UK, Spain and Netherlands. It is always exiting to talk with writers, because it is a change to really stop and think about all the things behind the art. The most peculiar interview lately have been in Finnish Karjala magazine, where I was asked to tell about my family heritage and how my roots have influenced my creativity. Because of the interview I realised that so many of my dearest artistic themes springs from the old believes, stories and dreams that are told by my family. They are in a way distant echoes of the past. This interview gave me many ideas for the Kalevala-story that I’m working with at the moment. It was also great fun to give a very extensive interview to Huff Magazine from UK that opened my eyes on what my art is all about: dreams that are like puzzles and poems: Build up piece by piece – layer by layer. What is hidden, is the most important.