Mathilde Krab Nymann

Grey Sheep

mknmkn

Location

copenhagen / denmark

University

Royal College of Art - London

The collection is influenced by philosophy and personal thoughts. Thoughts that have made me reconsider prior assumptions or caused me to revaluate and reflect - words that have provoked my imagination and even forced me to see things from a different perspective.

“Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and beauty of the world. And it’s breathtaking”.
Carlo Rovelli from Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.

This quote has provided the motivating words for my studies and investigations. It contains the idea that we are always balancing between the known and the unknown – and that the boundary in between keeps moving throughout our life as we continue to learn. What has become the uniqueness of my work and way of thinking is that it does not suggest something completely new. Instead it examines the fact that there are so many things we know that we have not seen from the right perspective yet. With my work I wish to ask people to take up a different viewpoint - to reconsider a prior assumption or judgement about what is important and what is not. I believe, that when we choose to take the time, when we choose to be present and conscious we can perceive things differently and our image of the world will change.

Latest Collection

Moments of brokenness

When you see the collection, you might think: Does the world need yet another pair of jeans and a denim jacket? For that you can say - it might or it might not. Reality is, that it’s not what this is about! It is about the fact that sometimes, we have an idea of what reality is, and what we believe is valuable. Only when it gets torn apart, we stop, think and begin to understand what our values really are, what we stand for and what we believe in.
My graduation project has been about scaling down these issues to the simplest and most understandable level. It has been about asking questions and reflecting on how even the simplest moments of reality changes significantly, if we choose to take the time to understand it. I have found that even the simplest piece within a larger structure, is part of the forming process and thus part of the overall form or image. Based on this understanding, I decided to replicate a moment of reality in slow motion. The moment when a cup is shattered on the floor and what happens within that fraction of a second. This, to understand what in reality happens when the whole and what we know are broken into pieces. Watching the break happen in slow motion, it revealed amazing movements of porcelain pieces where even the tiniest little fragment became visible and important to the whole image and impression. The experiment opened completely new dimensions. In slow motion the shattering of the cup suddenly sounded like bells ringing. The recognizable smooth three-dimensional shape unlocked and suddenly became multi-dimensional. The fractures created a whole new understanding of space and dimensions, the material, textures and haptics were much more nuanced and interesting than what was previous seemed the perfect image of the known mug. What immediately seemed so destructive, suddenly manifested itself as a completely different reality and perhaps what seemed to be right and perfect wasn’t such an interesting place to be living. At least it gives reason to revaluate one’s values and view on normality.
The idea is to present a different perspective on reality as simple and clear as possible – to show how the most insignificant 2 seconds contains so much more than we initially sense. The research contains 10 stills. Each of them reveals a different nuance of the breaking mug: 5 of the stills have been investigated and examined. 5 stills are left unexplored. The five looks in the collection are each inspired by one of the stills and contain a different notion and analysis of the break. One look reflects the initial break line where one detail has moved away from the known silhouette. Another represents the notion of dimensions and change of space in motion. A third reflects the single detail that creates the image of the shape it once belonged to. For my choice of silhouette I wanted the garments to reflect the notions of the known reality. I chose the classic jean and denim jacket as a known shape and system – like the common understanding of the coffee mug. Subsequently, it became my research that informed and guided how the foundational silhouette was going to transform, unfold and change. Therefor my work has been about taking a known form, processing it, tearing it out, and restoring it from a new perspective and with new values.