Hem X Rasmus Nossbring: Smooth like soft ice

Tell us about your inspiration for Monument?

I often try to allow all fragments of inspiration to mingle with each other in my work. I tend to move more into a non-functional, more sculptural field. When the expression for Monument started to take shape, I remember thinking a lot about the Bouroullecs and Swedish caviar.

What is your starting point for designing a new piece like this?

This is the first time that I actually turned anything out of my sculptural practice into a series but I had the idea brewing already when the suggestion came from Arranging Things. It just needed the right partner to be taken from the idea stage. Still, it took close to 6 months for the full development of Monument.

Explain the process of creating this product.

It’s a process I’ve been working with for a while. Basically, it’s hot glass that has been pressed into an optic mold and then extracted, heated, folded, cut and polished. The most fun part is folding up the piece on the top, but also painfully focus-demanding.

Did you have a specific environment in mind when you were designing the piece?

A goal with creating a series is that it might be a little bit more accessible and so that it can go to more than one place. I usually create work that I want to hang out with or around. Yet, as the titles might tell, they should be placed where they can be admired.

How does Monument within your existing body of work?

I would say that there is no way of holding them apart, it is simply an extension created together with Arranging Things and Hem. I care just as much for them as all the other work in my sculptural family.