About me and Cabin Fever

From the Man vs. Beast series, 2010.

Cabin fever is restlessness derived from being in a confined area for a long period of time.

This blog started as an attempt to cure that sensation, which materialized moving from Stockholm to a small island in the Baltic Sea.

For three years (2008-2011), I studied at the Glass Design Programme at the Danish Design School on Bornholm, Denmark. Starting fall 2011, I will be attending the Master Programme in Ceramics & Glass at Konstfack, Stockholm.

I first started blowing glass at Kosta Glass School in 2007, after being intrigued by glass as a sculptural material. I work with different techniques within glass making, and is also very fond of combining the glass with other materials.

My starting point as an artist is based on phenomena which I find peculiar, bizarre even, but often constitute norms and are considered to be completely normal. I am particularly interested in power structures and how they affect the way we interact with each other and the surrounding world.

I also want to include a contradictory experience in my objects; the meeting between beauty and discomfort. Objects that at first sight are perceived as decorative, but at a closer look turn out to be something more than that. That turn out to have macabre elements or meanings, another dimension for the viewer to see. Something that doesn’t quite add up to the picture, that provokes the viewer to question preconceptions. What is going on here, and why?

Contact:

matilda.kastel@gmail.com