Scandinavian rug ideas

I found this picture when I was looking for Scandinavian style furniture and found that I already owned the circle cane chair in the centre of the picture so I thought I would in corporate the chair into the installation as the colour and shape fit with the rest of the items. I am thinking of making a fake fur rug to go onto the chair which is often a lounge room item which is used in Scandinavian homes.
Like the below images:

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/08/87/21/088721ca01f9b41794387b659f9b6e75.jpg


http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ab/62/35/ab6235615a30782eb9845b7a353b0623.jpg

http://folklorefashion.durantextiles.com/2012/10/
Very interesting traditional fashion from Scandinavia.

Birch trees and Scandinavian Houses

My installation was missing Scandinavian elements, so I thought about items which represent Scandinavia to a western population. I came up with birch trees and wooden Scandinavian houses.

for the logs of 'Birch' trees I found just local logs and painted them with white spray paint and hand painted the black markings onto them the images below are examples from pinterest of real birch trees.


http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/11/c3/6f/11c36fc86121bd3c46954864ee06beaf.jpg


http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/a0/bd/2ca0bd77f974ac01750f775508935b8f.jpg

For the Scandinavian Houses, which I made out of pine and then hand painted in coloured acrylic paints to represent wooden cottages. I based the design from the below images;


http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fd/e3/7f/fde37ff537a8fc1465cd7c3fb62fe014.jpg


http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/04/2a/77/042a77b7c2f274108518505932283928.jpg

Nordic Curtain

For the design for my backdrop/curtain I was thinking about Scandinavian flags. All of the flags from the Nordic area have a similar look about them.

  
Norwegian Flag

Danish Flag

Swedish Flag

Finland Flag

Iceland Flag

So I decided on a tea towel flag:

Practise of Installation set up

At the One night Sculpture and Installation exhibition night;

For the first time I have had most of the items ready to have installed the overall look is pretty good, I would have liked to have had time to finish my backdrop and have a place for the cushions to sit some where. I did receive some positive feedback and was glad I had the chance to play around with the set up and change a few items. I took away the coffee table and also rug mainly because they didn't fit with the whole look and the rug needed to be cleaned and brought the wrong attention to the floor.
The only problem I am still working out is the placement of the fairy bread.

Scandinavian chairs and lounge room inspiration

I have decided to re-upholster Scandinavian style chairs in some kind of Australian fabric for example vintage linen tea towels, beach towels or vintage Australian tablecloths.

I have been influenced by works by Suzie Stanford with her tea towel chairs, but mine will be influenced by the furniture pieces being Scandinavian in style. The idea was to have the Scandinavian references as being slightly more hidden  compared to the Australian style items and motifs in the tea towels and other iconic images.

An example of a Scandinavian room:

Image via Pinterest

Re-upholstering my Scandinavian Chairs:

Above: original fabric

Sanding back the frame

Nearly the finished product

One of the re-upholstered seats

Inspiration; via Ebay

Inspiration via Ebay

Scandinavian pattern via ebay

Inspiration via Ebay

The idea was to incorporate as many Scandinavian motifs or objects into the Australian style items to make the whole installation a representation of blended cultures influenced by an Australian upbringing.  

Down Over Up - Martin Creed

In the video above Martin Creed explains his thoughts on his work displayed in his 2010 show Down Over up held during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The work is primarily composed of whole and easily acessable  objects, chairs, tables, wood, cacti. The Fruitmarket gallery describes in their guide the exhibition as one about progression. However in the video Creed eludes to the idea of order. Simplifying and controlling his reality with perfectly proportioned objects. Wood, grown wild is tamed and stacked into perfect piles with specific dimensions, the same idea applies for the cacti, a plant who does not obey the rules human ashetics is modified to make it pleasing to our eye.. The chairs and tables stacked high expose the idea of order in our homes,where we are sold the idea of cleanliness and order however this presents a juxtaposition as stacked furniture while ordered, in its usual context, the home is out of place and unnatural.
Each work has a separate witticism you could read into it as well as a deeper story to reveal to us about our own natures. For example, a chair needing a seat... a witty bon mot the entire message of the piece? Or one of many layered meanings one could read The cacti are presented similarly, is order and control is pleasing to the eye?

Work No. 960 Photo by Murdo Macleod

Work No. 928 Photo Galleria Lorcan O'Neil

Work No. 988 Photo Murdo MacLeod

Work No.  997 Photo Barbora Gerny

. Other than the desire to use prefabricated pieces in my works I would also like to mirror the idea of The multitude of independent meanings you could take from a piece. I've treated one piece as if it were many. each component a stand alone piece as well as playing its part in the larger narrative of my work.

Honor Freeman

Originating from South Australia Honor Freemans work with ceramic to turn mundane objects into things of delicate beauty. she celebrates the everyday. and in her own words "I seek to make visible the relationship between us and the objects we use, the gestures, mundane activities and humble objects, like small markers silently measuring the hours and marking the days. Thoughts of preserving, measuring and marking time’s passing occupy the work during the making. There is a correlation between actions and gestures used when engaging with objects and those used during the process of making that informs the work."
The objects she creates are a scene the the sponges create an imagined scene around them of a sink and a kitchen, A place somebody lives, somebody like you. In my own work I'm physically creating the scene that the audience could imagine someone living in. Does it remind them someone they know? 

Days measured, 2008

Every cloud has a silver lining, 2012

On a knifes edge, 2012

collecting the dust, 2012

Plug, 2009

When life hands you lemons, 2012