Although they work with different media, Camilla Iliefski and Eva Zethraeus have had a simpatico career. For the past two decades, these two alumni of the HDK School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg have evolved alongside each other, both producing work focused on detail, process and craft. And now, the exhibition Shimmering Real: Perception and the Spaces Between at HB381, on view until April 18, positions their pieces in thoughtful dialogue, with Iliefski’s soft, vibrant rugs a backdrop to Zethraeus’s sculptures that resemble hard yet friendly sea creatures.
With a background in graphic design, Iliefksi uses color as the dominant language in her fiber pieces, where hues in various gradients and intensities blend into and bounce off of each other with gusto.
Her rugs are akin to vivid paintings (the exhibition’s curators make comparisons to Kandinsky, among others), with their irregular borders and undulating pile heights and depths. The latter result in bulbous, organic compositions that feel like surreal odes to clouds, plant-life, and all things organic and thriving. Iliefksi often uses nature as a point of departure — landscapes, vegetation and the surfaces of the sea and sky.
Zethraeus also looks to the natural world for inspiration. Her pieces appear as if they’ve been rescued — in pristine shape — from some magical ocean floor. She counts marine life, Buddhist gardens and viruses as catalysts for her ideas, which take wondrous form in porcelain.
She works meticulously on each sculpture, whose every component is hand thrown, the composition assembled and then treated with numerous glazings and firings. The resulting works feel both natural and artificial, striking a balance between the familiar and altogether new.
To see more work by the respective designers, visit camillailiefski.com and evazethraeus.se.
Photography by Joe Kramm, courtesy of HB381.
