Exported Heritage
2021 | Ply-wood, paper
Part of: Uncontrollability Or Paranoid Production And Perception Or You’re So Paranoid You Probably Think This Project Is About Me.
Exported Heritage strives to be an exploration of the transitions between the traditional and hand-crafted versus the generic, computer-generated. The project speculates on the futurity of traditionally crafted items of heritage in a techno-society.
The cabinet aims to problematize the development and evolution of production methods and address a growing worry for the optimization and modification of objects which in their very core are meant to be crafted by human hands. The project aims to reflect on heritage, culture, and tradition, and processes being rushed in a postmodern culture where qualities such as efficiency and control are transitioning from being ideals to defaults.
Exported Heritage is a replica of a cabinet, a traditional Norwegian “skatoll”, which is hand-carved by traditional craftsmen from my mother’s village. While the original has it’s motifs drawn and carved by hand in solid wood, the replica is traced and extruded in 3D CAD programs and is later milled by high-tech machines on laminated materials. The action of juxtaposing the methods (and possibly motifs) of production serves as an attempt to investigate possible future alienating mutations, which no longer serves the function of sustaining heritage and valuable cultural artefacts.
Text by Maren Bang in the role of Ole Riemann.
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