StokkeAustad: The Kingdom of Convenience

(jiří macek) Kitchen utensils and glass jars, designed by Jonas Flavio Stokke and Oystein Austad as part of the Basic collection for Frost product, are very simple – so simple and modest that the poetics that originates in them is both wind and motionless meditation. Thus, a new path that links Scandinavia with Japan opens. Even though these are mere kitchen utensils, if Kings of Convenience were not a band, the utensils would suit the name.

Jonas Flavio Stokke and Oystein Austad started collaborating while at school. They met at an exhibition that was part of the Norway Says series of exhibitions – which, by the way, ceased its existence in September last year.– and currently rank among the most prominent young designers of their generation. They reside in Oslo and design furniture, interior accessories, industrial design, interiors, and exhibitions. Their recent exhibition designs included the Norwegian stall entitled 100% Norway at 100% Design in London last year. Their design ushered visitors into a symbolical wooden house, among beams, below the roof, and inserted selected objects into its grid. Their latest exhibition took place in Tokyo where they interconnected the perception of graphics and products in a composition of simple objects that are close to an urban-planning study in collaboration with the graphic studio of Your Friends. Everything seemed to depend on scale. After all, simple objects from the Basic collection of kitchen utensils turn into a platform for greater things. It is sometimes enough to combine glass with wood – for instance, a glass suddenly represents time of a waterfall that has stopped still, or a swizzle stick represents a gate. Catch a tuna, slice whole-meal bread and brown yeast cheese and watch Kings of Convenience playing in the distance.

www.stokkeaustad.com
www.frostproduct.com

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