Nomen Est Omen flags
YEAR: 2022 / MATERIAL: LINEN AND WOOL / DATE:01.04.2022 / VENUE: MUSEUM IN THE PARK, UK / CATEGORY: DESIGN RESEARCH
As a part of the exhibition Plant Communitas, the ongoing work, Nomen est Omen, was presented in the Museum in the Park, in Stroud, UK (2022) and in the Sidney Nolan Trust, Rodd Presteigne (2023).
This work is a part of the on-going PhD project in artistic research Odd New Spring – What we learn from You.
Odd new Spring © 2023 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
The Weeds-Pavilion participatory installation
YEAR: 2019 / MATERIAL: FALLOPIA JAPONICA (JAPANESE KNOTWEED) / DATE: 20.09-22.09.19 / VENUE: SCIENCE DAYS, BERGEN / CATEGORY: DESIGN RESEARCH
A participatory installation, built together with visitors during the science days in Bergen.
Weeds-pavilion:
Artikkel: Bygger kjempeuro av ugress under forskningsdagene
This work is a part of the on-going PhD project in artistic research Odd New Spring – What we learn from You.
Odd new Spring © 2019 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Jane Sverdrupsen
Interpreting Fallopia japonica material research
YEAR: 2019 / MATERIAL: FALLOPIA JAPONICA (JAPANESE KNOTWEED) / DATE: 01.04-04.04.19 / VENUE: JOY FORUM, BERGEN / CATEGORY: DESIGN RESEARCH
Interpreting Fallopia japonica presents an installation of objects and material-explorations created of raw plant material: various investigations and interpretations of Fallopia japonica (eng: japanese knotweed), which has been declared one of the world’s most invasive weeds. The uncontrolled spread is a time-consuming and expensive burden for gardeners, states and landlords. It is also concluded to have negative consequences on wildlife and biodiversity. Yet, what if this plant could tell us it’s story? What if this plant would have had a place in our culture, craft or cuisine? Perhaps our relationship to these so-called “invasive, alien species” actually mirror our lacking attachment and understanding of the natural world?
This installation questions the concept of belonging and attempts new ways of understanding and approaching the surplus of these undesired, but once so beloved and “exotic” plants. This is the first part of an on-going artistic research project, where the focal point is directed towards the process, the potential and the interpretation. Using design as a tool for investigation the goal is to share ideas and spark dialogues in the space between crafts, aesthetics, science and production.
This work is a part of the on-going PhD project in artistic research Odd New Spring – What we learn from You.
Odd new Spring © 2019 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Line Møllerhaug
WISDOM necklace
YEAR: 2009 / MATERIAL: CHINA AND PLATED GOLD / DIMENSIONS: 1,5 x 1 x 1 CM / CATEGORY: SMALL SCALE PRODUCTION BY STUDIO SIREN ELISE WILHELMSEN
When you least expect it, four molars appear in the hindmost corner of your jaws. Wisdom teeth! A tangible, and sometimes painful, proof that you have grown older – and hopefully a little wiser.
Far too many of these noble samples of human porcelain end their days in a dentist’s trash bin. This is a reproduction of the designers molar, as an homage to the thinking, reflecting and critical minds.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. - Alfred Lord Tennyson
365 KNITTING CLOCK wall-hanging clock
YEAR: 2010 / MATERIAL: WOOD, WOOL, ACRYLIC GLASS, ELECTRICITY / DIMENSIONS: 36 x 15 x 50 CM / CATEGORY: LIMITED EDITION OF 10 PIECES NUMBERED AND SIGNED + 2 PROTOTYPES + 2. A.P. / PRICE: AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Time is manifested in physical objects; in things that grow, develop or extinguish. Time is an ever forward-moving force and I wanted to make a clock based on times true nature, more than the numbers we have attached to it. - Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
365 Knitting Clock stitches time as it passes by. It knits 24 hours a day, one year at the time, presenting the physical representation of time as a creative and tangible force. After 365 days the clock has turned the passed year into a two-meter long scarf. Now the past can be carried out into the future and the upcoming year is hiding in a new spool of thread, still unknitted.
The clock was first shown during the DMY design week in Berlin in 2010, and since then it has been exhibited across the world; at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, the National Museum in Beijing, MUDAC - design Museum Lausanne and as a part of Vitras show during Stockholm furniture fair, among other places. It has been awarded with prizes such as Frame magazine Student Award, Time to Design New Talent Award and Design Reports Award during Salone del Mobile in Milan. The Grandfather Knitting Clock has become a permanent part of the reception interior at the awarded design hotel The Thief in Oslo, Norway.
The 365 Knitting Clock is made in a limited edition of 10 numbered pieces + 2 A.P. + 2 Prototypes.
365 Knitting Clock © 2010 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Photos by Miriam Lehnart (1,4,9) and Siren Elise Wilhelmsen (2,3,5,6,7,8)
GRANDFATHER KNITTING CLOCK standing clock
YEAR: 2010 / MATERIAL: WOOD, WOOL AND ACRYLIC GLASS / DIMENSIONS: 45 x 20 x 190 CM / PRODUCTION: SIREN ELISE WILHELMSEN STUDIO / CATEGORY: LIMITED EDITION OF 8 PIECES NUMBERED AND SIGNED + 2 PROTOTYPES + 2. A.P. / PRICE: AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Grandfather Knitting Clock stitches time as it passes by. It knits 24 hours a day, one year at the time, presenting the physical representation of time as a creative and tangible force. After 365 days the clock has turned the passed year into a two-meter long scarf. Now the past can be carried out into the future and the upcoming year is hiding in a new spool of thread, still unknitted.
The first knitting clock was shown during the DMY design week in Berlin in 2010, since then it has been exhibited across the world; at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, the National Museum in Beijing, MUDAC - design Museum Lausanne and as a part of Vitras show during Stockholm furniture fair, among other places. It has been awarded with prizes such as Frame magazine Student Award, Time to Design New Talent Award and Design Reports Award during Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Grandfather Knitting Clock is an expansion of the Knitting Clock concept and was developed during a stay at the Danish Art Workshop in Copenhagen in 2010. It has become a permanent part of the reception interior at the awarded design hotel The Thief in Oslo, Norway. www.thethief.com
The Grandfather Knitting Clock is made in a limited edition of 8 numbered pieces + 2 A.P. + 2 Prototypes.
Grandfather Knitting Clock © 2010 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Photos by Simon Skreddernes (3), Miriam Lennart (4,5,6) and Siren Elise Wilhelmsen (1,2)
BLAANE textile screen
YEAR: 2014 / MATERIAL: BIRCH AND 100% WOOL / DIMENSIONS: 61 x 3,5 x 180 CM / 103 x 3,5 x 160 CM / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE, FREE TO EDITION
No one is a child of today. We are children of the thousand years. Deep through layer after layer the roots go. Knut Hauge
Our heritage goes far back. Back to people we have never met or heard anything about. Back to those who have lived here for generations and built themselves a home and life in this landscape between the mountains. And although hundred –thousands! - of years have passed; the fjords and the mountains are still the same.
Like a bridge from the past, towards our own time and even into the future, the mountains stand unshaken and unaltered. As if they form the actual backbone of this stretched country and are building blocks of our very own DNA. Perhaps the mountains can remind us to be humble towards our natural environment and maybe instead of searching the unknown future for all our answers, we could start (re-)learning from the thousands of years when people actually lived in harmony with their environment. Because, no one is a child of today…
Blaane is an abstract window into the spectacular mountain landscape. The wool weave is fastened to a wooden frame and due to the semi-transparency the screens allows light and movements to glimpse through.
The fabric is developed in the weave-lab at Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen and woven by Innvik Sellgren.
Blaane © 2014 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Marie Jacob (1,2,3,4) and Siren Elise Wilhelmsen (5,6)
KOVE sofa/daybed
YEAR: 2014 / MATERIAL: WOOD, FOAM AND 100% WOOL / DIMENSIONS: 200 x 75 – 115 x 75 CM / CATEGORY: PROTOTYP, FREE TO EDITION
A Kove (eng:alcove) used to be a special room or niche for sleeping, built into a wall. These sleeping alcoves were usually hidden behind a curtain during the day, since they were placed in the only room of the house. Sometimes they would be covered with blankets and cushions to serve as a sofa – a quite logical and intuitive way to solve it. Inspired by these old-school sleeping-sofas; Kove is meant to be an all-around piece. It can be transformed from a sofa, to a daybed and to a bed in just one single movement. Its simple principle of expansion stretches from 75 to 115 cm.
Kove © 2014 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
SORIA MORIA boxes
YEAR: 2015 / MATERIAL: BIRCH PLYWOOD / DIMENSIONS: VARIOUS/ CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE, FREE TO EDITION
What do we choose to keep? What are these things we hide away in boxes? Memories, small stories and secrets? The Soria Moria is a set of 11 boxes of decreasing size, which can be stacked on top of - or nested inside of - each other. While meeting the practical task of storing, it also becomes a sculptural object itself; a castle to honour all those small or large treasures that it contains.
Soria Moria © 2015 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
YOU + ME dynamo lamp
YEAR: 2011 / MATERIAL: OAK AND GLASS / DIMENSIONS: 15 x 15 x 23,5 CM / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE, FREE TO EDITION
It is a good feeling to be autonomous, self-regulating and sovereign. For a lamp is that normally not the case. Not that the lamp cares. But perhaps the owner? Sometimes it could be nice to bring the lamp with you to the next room, the balcony, the basement, the tent or to the boat…
You+Me is free from power points and can, like a candle, simply be brought around as you wish. It can hang or stand. You+Me is a teamwork between product and user; the lamp is charged simply by pulling the cord and due to its dynamo technology it uses this energy to provide light – one minute of charging gives thirty minutes of light. The warm light from the one strong LED is spread by a lens, so as to make the most of every bit of power.
Made in cooperation with Elisabeth Florstedt. www.elisabeth-florstedt.de
You+Me © 2011 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Elisabeth Florstedt
KVELDEN pendant lamp
YEAR: 2014 / MATERIAL: BIRCH AND BIRCH VENEER / DIMENSIONS: 45 x 45 x 31 CM / CATEGORY: IN PRODUCTION WITH BOLIA
Have you ever been in the woods at night? Have you seen how the silhouettes change at dusk and the ancient, wooden churches turn into mountains and dragons from the past? It is in the evening that the magic happens and everything changes; om kvelden.
Kvelden pendant lamp materializes this transformation; from the the bright sun to the dark night sky, the changing landscape and the warm light. It is coated black on the outside, but has kept its natural wooden colour on the inside. Through the all-wooden construction it provides a warm light that is filtered through the surface, glimpsing through cracks and openings.
It has, among other places, been presented at Stockholm Furniture fair, during Salone del Mobile in Milan and at the ICFF in New York. Since 2016 it is a part of Danish company Bolia’s collection. www.bolia.com
Kvelden © 2014 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Bolia (2,3), Marie Jacob (1,4) and Siren Elise Wilhelmsen (5,6,7)
LOVE DANCE Album Cover
YEAR: 2017 / CATEGORY: COVER ART
A series of three Album Covers; two singels and one EP for the Norwegian electronic pop duo Love Dance. Inspired by their danceable, pop music, we created a design where rhythm and colours play the main parts.
www.facebook.com/lovedancebergen
Project team: Siren Elise Wilhelmsen, Niklas Sebastian Alveberg
GARM&CO stick-animals
YEAR: 2014 / MATERIAL: BIRCH / DIMENSIONS: ca.120 CM / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE
In the time before Internet, television and cell phones started captivating our time and attention, people spent greater part of life wondering about the world around them. Plants and animals were honoured with stories and poems, as people saw the importance in every one of them. Each had their own task and place and the animals had powers and abilities that people could only dream about. And so they did.
Garm & Co outlines some of these ancient animal stories from the North in a wish to again let them inspire and entertain.
The wooden stick horse is one of the oldest toys that we know of. Through centuries children have been galloping off on their wooden horses. Yet, from now on there will also be some crawling, jumping and flying to do, as the old horse introduces its new friends!
Garm&Co © 2014 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen - Illustration of Norse god Freyr, riding his golden boar, Gullinbursti by Alexander Murray
MEMORY CARPET hybrid furniture
YEAR: 2012 / MATERIAL: 100% WOOL / DIMENSIONS: 220 x 160 x 85 CM / CATEGORY EXPERIMENTAL
Nature has the spectacular ability to make separate objects become one. Enabled by the factor of time, natural objects will start to intertwine, grow into-over-or-in-between-each-other and eventually they have (re-)shaped the scenery. What would our everyday objects look like if they had the same power?
In memories or dreams things sometimes have that ability. The object in this experiment includes two well-known elements; a chair and a rug. Yet, is it any of these anymore; is it a chair or is it a rug? Has it become something new? Or just very odd? Memory Carpet invites us to reflect upon our everyday habits – and about the necessity of breaking them.
This work was developed for an Exhibition together with Klubben - Norwegian designers union at Galleri TM51, Oslo 2012. www.klbbn.no
Memory Carpet © 2012 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
TVI TVI salt & pepper spinners
YEAR: 2012 / METERIAL: OAK / DIMENSIONS: DIV / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE, FREE TO EDITION
Intuitively you know how to spin a spinning top. Everybody knows that. So, can you please spin over the salt?!
Tvi Tvi © 2012 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Miriam Lehnart
LY blanket
YEAR: 2014 / MATERIAL: 100% WOOL / DIMENSIONS: 150 x 220 cm / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE, FREE TO EDITION
Ly is a double weave wool blanket with a three-dimentional pattern. The design is a transformed hand-drawing, which have been woven on a digital loom. The tree-dimensional effect occurs through the lines and the space between and adds volume and thickness to the material.
The fabric is developed in the weave-lab at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen and woven in Innvik Sellgren.
Ly © 2014 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Marie Jacob
SEASON CARPET soft thermometer
YEAR: 2012 / MATERIAL: 100% WOOL, THERMOCHRONIC COATING / DIMENSIONS: VARIOUS / CATEGORY: EXPERIMENTAL
Our natural environment is always changing; flowers bloom at a certain temperature, leaves fall off at another, and snow falls at temperatures below zero. In the same way the Season Carpet is sensible to temperature changes and its colours and pattern varies according to its surroundings; the weather and the season. The carpet is braided in a three-colour pattern, where the colours have different temperature sensitivities and will change at different temperatures. This way, the carpet will change its look through the day and the year – depending on the environment.
This project was possible thanks to the generous support of Matsui Inc.
Season Carpet © 2012 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
PARASITZ mobile seating
YEAR: 2008 / MATERIAL: WOOD AND FABRIC / DIMENSIONS: 25 x 8 x 8 CM / CATEGORY: PROTOTYPE
This mobile and flexible seat was developed to offer a personal seating outside the home. The construction makes it possible to roll the seat together in one direction while in the other it stabilizes and forms a seat. All you need is a tree to fasten it around: the seat will become stabile and the tree-pole turns into a back lean.
Parasitz is easy to bring along, it is light and becomes so small it fits in the bag. The height and width is easily adjustable (it forms after the size of the tree pole) which makes it suitable for all ages and sizes. The materials were chosen for the outdoor surroundings: water-resistant fabric and wood. The seat needs the tree to form a stabile, comfortable and natural seating. It is integrated, but without leaving any traces.
Parasitz © 2008 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Simon Skreddernes (1) and Siren Elise Wilhelmsen (2,3)
(R)EVOLUTING SPOONS cutlery
YEAR: 2008 / MATERIAL: VARIOUS / DIMENSIONS: VARIOUS/ CATEGORY: EXPERIMENTAL
One of our oldest household-utensils is the spoon. In Hebrew the word spoon actually means the palm of the hand and throughout history spoons have been carved in wood or bone, forged in metal and burnt clay.
Because of human ergonomics and the functionality of the object, the spoons of today are very much like those of our ancestors and we can draw the conclusion that its product-evolution is complete. Or is it? Inspired by the strategy of evolution, a small experiment started: to find out whether there was still any potential for development in such an old invention and if an untraditional design-method could help us discover these hidden and hypothetical possibilities. By studying eating habits and different existing spoons, we started recombining and mutating. Candlelight dinners, baby spoons, salt and pepper, travelling, cooking, materials and shapes.
The result: a collection of curiosity! …and a range of useful and interesting spin-offs; like the soupspoon made out of bread, the whisk and spoon combination for cooking, the camping spoon with a can opener, the spoon with thermochromic pigments to check the temperature while eating or cooking, the spoon-necklace that you always have ready and the combined spoon and napkin ring.
A project for inspiration, mapping, and discovering.
In cooperation with designer Hanna Wiesener. www.trikoton.com
(R)evoluting Spoons © 2008 Siren Elise Wilhelmsen / Images by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen