SWEDE SUCCESS

Press release April 2011

Award winning, Brighton-based Ulrika Jarl is a designer and maker specialising in the design and creation of handcrafted lighting and homewares. Her lighting products are made using bone china and various plastics chosen for their translucent qualities. Influences come largely from patterns and structures of nature, rhythm and repetition of related shapes. Her detailed work captures nature’s perfect structural elements and infinite richness of form, as functional as it is artistic as visual as it is tactile.

Swedish born, Jarl creates domestic lighting, but also takes commissions for bespoke installations for public and private clients. Public commissions include Zizzi Restaurant in Earl’s Court, Saf restaurant in Shoreditch as well as Haz restaurant in East London and ParVinu at Phelps in St. Margaret’s, London. She has exhibited around the world, been picked up by international furniture retailers and been extensively featured in a range of trade publications and UK press.

Her work first attracted attention when her Romanésco pendant light has was exhibited, with the help of the British Council, around the world, culminating at the Design Museum in 2005. Furniture retailer Habitat also took on this unusual and striking piece the following year. The original design is on display again as a part of the Nature of Pattern exhibition at The Millennium Gallery, Sheffield and at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle Upon Tyne until this summer respectively.

Designer and founder Ulrika Jarl said: 'I aim to make high-quality products that have longevity – they are not fashion items, but objects you would want to keep for a lifetime.'

In the last year Jarl has embarked on a Masters degree in Sustainable Design, which is her current passion. ‘Being a designer/maker today, you inevitably think about the fact that you are creating more “stuff”. Issues such as origin of materials, product lifecycle and the unfortunate disposal of products have become concerns which none of us can ignore any longer. It is my current challenge to improve my practice and to keep creating better and less damaging products in this product-saturated world.’

A step in that direction is Jarl’s most recent creation. ‘Willow pattern re-interpreted’ is a series of six dinner plates depicting six modern problems facing the planet. ‘Using a famous pattern that evokes recognition and nostalgia draws you in, and it takes a while before you realises that it is unfamiliar and that it is communicating a modern problem. The aim with this series of plates is to make mass-produced “perfect” objects with which we have no connection, special and emotionally durable – turning something mass-produced into something meaningful.’

The plates are second-hand unwanted plates found at a car-boot sales and charity shops, which have been up-cycled and made desirable again. The story depicted on the plate has changed and so has the story of the object itself. The intention is to redirect the current consumption for desire rather than need, by altering consumer behaviours through products.

Ends

PREVIOUS PRESS CLIPPINGS:

Homes & Gardens March 2011
Good Homes June 2010
Nordisk Interior Jan/Feb 2009
Craft & Design July/Aug 2007
The Guardian Weekend Magazine 30th Dec 2006
Crafts July/Aug 2006
Living Etc April 2006
The Saturday Telegraph 28th Jan 2006
The Guardian 7th Jan 2006
FRAME Magazine Nov/Dec 2005
Elle Decoration Nov 2005
The Independent Sunday Review 20th Nov 2005
Time Out Sep2005
Metro 9th Sep 2005
Vogue March 2005
The Independent Sunday Review 20th Feb 2005
The Times Bricks & Mortar supplement 14th Jan 2005
Icon Oct 2004
Art Review July/Aug 2004
Elle decoration July 2004
Metro 2nd July 2004