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Once a spoon, always a spoon

Sarah Hurtigkarl is a goldsmith and craft maker and heads the Metal Design and Craft programme at Nyckelviksskolan on Lidingö in Stockholm.
The school offers preparatory courses for students planning to attend design and art colleges in a similar role as some of the Danish folk high schools.

September 2023

From HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 9 about:

Sarah Hurtigkarl, born 1981
Born and raised in Copenhagen
Lives and works in Stockholm
MA of Art, Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery, Royal College London

‘Visions of a spoon’

Sarah Hurtigkarl is a goldsmith and craft maker and heads the Metal Design and Craft programme at Nyckelviksskolan on Lidingö in Stockholm. The school offers preparatory courses for students planning to attend design and art colleges in a similar role as some of the Danish folk high schools.

I have known Sarah since 2003, when she began her apprenticeship as a goldsmith with Lina Christensen in Copenhagen.

Sarah completed her training in 2007 and applied to Konstfack in Stockholm, on Lina’s recommendation, she tells me.

At the time, I was living in the Swedish capital and followed from the sidelines as Sarah found her place in a new city.

Although she had a Swedish boyfriend and a good professional network in Sweden, after earning her bachelor’s degree, she pursued her dream of studying in London, where she earned her master’s degree in 2012, from the Royal College of Art.

With that under her belt, she returned to Stockholm, where she established a joint workshop in the Stockholm district of Midsommarkransen with three colleagues. Since then, the joint workshop has resided in different locations around the city, including, from 2014 to 2021, in my former studio in the Östermalm district. Today, they have a space in the Södermalm district, a stone’s throw from Reimersholme, where Sarah lives with her husband, Samuel Fast Hurtigkarl, who is a partner at the production company Brikk Studios, and their two children.

Sarah’s artistic practice

I am interested in the relationship between the natural and the man-made, dreamlike and magical – my intention is to invite people inside a creative world of imagination.

Sarah’s original media were silver and gold, and she learned to express herself through jewellery. Today, she works in a variety of metals and in porcelain clay, which combines well with metal.

Sarah is the daughter of the legendary Danish chef Jan Hurtigkarl, and her lifelong, inherited interest in the meal, its rituals and the sense of togetherness it can create was a key source of inspiration when she began her journey from jewellery to object at Konstfack. Here, she explored the spoon as an object in numerous variations, from functional utensils to works of art.

She is also fascinated by old silver cutlery and the history it represents and has an extensive collection. In 2014, she created a permanent work of art for the Mielcke & Hurtigkarl restaurant in Copenhagen. The piece consists of spoons that appear to grow out of the wall like fungi.

The last time I saw Sarah’s art, she was also working with old cutlery, incorporating it into a piece for a group exhibition during Stockholm Craft Week in 2022. Under the joint theme ‘escape from reality’, Sarah showed ‘escaped cutlery’: a shadow from the past expressed as imprints on copper and aluminium.

‘Kaleidospoon’ is the working title of her latest piece, which had come back from nickel-plating the day before my visit.
Ultimately, the kaleidoscopic piece (right) was titled ‘Visions of a spoon’, I learn a few months later, when Sarah’s Instagram account announces that it has been hung at Nutida Svenskt Silver’s (Contemporary Swedish Silver) group exhibition at Konstakademien (the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts) in Stockholm.

#visitstockholm

Workshop in Stockholm

Under Smykkernes By i København udstiller Sarah Hurtigkarl hos :

 

BUKKEHAVE – ALICE KAUFMANN
Oehlenschlægersgade 13, kl. th. 1663 København V

og hos

KATRINE KRISTENSEN
Gammel Kongevej 37 st th. 1610 København V

Desuden udstiller hun i Malmö på Form Designcenter med Nutida Svenskt Silver fra 9 september -12 november

og i Stockholm fra 5- 15 oktober hos Svenskt Tenn på en gruppeudstilling med 25 andre guld-og sølvsmede

Herunder uddrag fra artikel om Sarah Hurtigkarl fra HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 9.

Køb dit eksemplar her

I photographed the silver oyster shell and salt spoon from 2019 for bookazine no. 1 (at the table with HÅNDVÆRK). The item was a study for a series of salt bowls that Sarah created for the Danish embassy in Tokyo as part of the project ‘Dining with Design’. ‘Dining with Design’ was curated by Margrethe Odgaard and comprises pieces created by 17 Danish makers and designers. Many of the pieces were developed specially for the project, others are in production by Danish or Japanese manufacturers. As part of the regular tableware at the embassy, the pieces will introduce embassy guests to contemporary Danish crafts and design of the highest quality.

Sarah Hurtigkarl, født 1981
Født og opvokset i København
Bor og arbejder i Stockholm
MA of Art, Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewelry, Royal College London

Sarah Hurtigkarl er guldsmed og kunsthåndværker, desuden er hun ansvarlig for uddannelsen Metall – form och smycke på Nyckelviksskolan på Lidingö i Stockholm. En skole, der fungerer som forskole til de svenske design- og kunstuniversiteter, på samme måde som nogle af folkehøjskolerne gør det i Danmark.

Jeg har kendt Sarah, siden hun i 2003 kom i guldsmedelære hos Lina Christensen i København.

Da Sarah var færdiguddannet i 2007, søgte hun, på Linas opfordring, fortæller hun, til Konstfack i Stockholm.

Jeg boede på det tidspunkt i den svenske hovedstad og fik lov til at følge lidt med på sidelinjen, mens Sarah var ny i byen.

Til trods for svensk kæreste og godt svensk fagligt netværk forfulgte hun efter sin bacheloreksamen en drøm om at videreuddanne sig i London, hvilket resulterede i en kandidateksamen fra Royal Collage of Art i 2012.

Med den i bagagen vendte hun tilbage til Stockholm og etablerede i bydelen Midsommarkransen, sammen med tre kolleger, fælles værksted. Værkstedskollegiet har siden haft til huse forskellige steder i byen, blandt andet fra 2014 til 2021 i mit tidligere studio på Östermalm. Nu sidder de på Södermalm et stenkast fra Reimersholme, hvor Sarah og hendes mand, Samuel Fast Hurtigkarl, som er partner i produktionsselskabet Brikk Studios, bor med deres to børn.

Sarahs kunst

“Jeg er interesseret i forholdet mellem det naturlige og det kunstskabte, det drømmende og det magiske – min intention er at invitere indenfor i en fantasifuld forestillingsverden.”

Sarahs oprindelig materiale var sølv og guld, og hun lærte at udtrykke sig gennem smykker. Nu arbejder hun i flere forskellige metaller og i porcelænsler, som trives godt i selskab med metallet.

Efternavnet Hurtigkarl dufter af mad og måltid, hun er datter af den legendariske kok Jan Hurtigkarl, og hendes nedarvede interesse for måltidet og måltidets nærvær og ritualer blev et uundgåeligt udgangspunkt, da hun på Konstfack startede sin rejse fra smykket mod objektet. Hun fattede interesse for skeen og har i mange variationer fabuleret over skeen som objekt, såvel i form af brugsskeer som af kunstgenstande.

Det gamle sølvbestik og dets iboende historie fascinerer hende også, og hendes samling er omfattende. I 2014 skabte hun et permanent kunstværk til restaurant Mielcke & Hurtigkarl i København. Værket består af skeblade, der som svampe vokser ud af væggen.

Forrige gang jeg så Sarahs arbejde, var gammelt bestik også involveret, i et værk til en fællesudstilling under Stockholm Craft Week 2022. Temaet var virkelighedsflugt.

Sarahs værk var spor af ‘flygtet bestik’, en skygge fra en svunden tid, udmøntet i aftryk på kobber og aluminium.

“Kaleidospoon” var arbejdstitlen på hendes seneste værk. Det kalejdoskopiske værk ender med at hedde “Visions of a spoon”, erfarer jeg nogle måneder senere, hvor Sarahs Instagram afslører, at det er hængt op på Nutida Svenskt Silvers fællesudstilling på Konstakademien i Stockholm.

En gang ske, altid ske

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