Alexander Lervik

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Svenska Dagbladet

SvD-Alex+Eva

Svenska Dagbladet · Portraits & interviews · 2 pages

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SvD Magasinet Saturday 18 February

Sound design in the borderland of the senses

Text ANDERS BERGMARK

An exciting design duet between Alexander Lervik and artist Eva Dahlgren.

WHAT DOES SUN GLITTER ON WATER SOUND LIKE? How do you express music in a mouth-blown glass object?

Designer Alexander Lervik’s and artist Eva Dahlgren’s exhibition Dit ljuset leder, currently on view at Designgalleriet, moves in the borderland between art and design.

Alexander Lervik is well-established as a designer and often engages in conceptual forward-thinking and technical innovations. For Eva Dahlgren, it is a debut in the design world. But the exhibition is far from her first artistic project outside music. In Stig Björkman's 2015 film Jag är Ingrid, she filmed several sequences with her Super 8 camera. That experience provided inspiration for the song Filmen om oss on last year's album Jag sjunger ljuset. And it is a few stanzas from that very song that form the musical backbone of the project. The exhibition consists of five small spaces, each with a theme expressed through art objects of mouth-blown glass, in music, and with light and scent.

— I live in a world of sound. I scrapped an album after a year and a half because I couldn't find the right sound. Blending sounds together so that it turns out right and goes straight to the heart is hard, says Eva.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT was that Stefan Nilsson, who runs Designgalleriet in Stockholm, invited Alexander Lervik to do an exhibition during Stockholm Design Week. He suggested that Alexander invite a partner, and Alexander came to think of Eva Dahlgren, an artist he had listened to a lot but had never met.

After a good deal of hesitation, he sent a package with a letter and a book he made a couple of years ago. Eva became interested, they met, and realized they had something going.

— From the start, we only knew that it was going to be light, objects, and music. I thought for a long time about how it would sound and came to the conclusion that it should be like an orchestra. All objects would play the same music, but in their own way, Eva explains.

Creation story. Eva Dahlgren and Alexander Lervik at Målerås glassworks, Småland.

They agreed not to start drawing any objects before the music was finished.

I MEET THEM during the creative process, at Målerås glassworks in Småland. With them, they have sketches of five art objects with working names taken from the members of a band: the singer, the drummer, the violin, the guitar, and the planets. Now the objects are to be produced. A glassblower gathers molten mass at the end of a pipe. He blows, spins, shapes, and slowly conjures up a miniature hi-hat. We stand around and gape. It looks incredibly simple and completely impossible at the same time.

A couple of the objects turn out to be difficult to make based on the sketches and have to be rethought.

The exhibition is a technical challenge for everyone involved: Stockholm Lighting, creating the lighting; Jakobsdals and Ogeborg, responsible for textiles and rugs; and Lexter, building the systems to convey sound and scent.

To prevent the music in the various spaces from bleeding into surrounding rooms, so-called sound showers are used—speakers that direct the sound.

A FEW WEEKS LATER we meet at Lexter in Stockholm. Eva sits at a computer together with sound producer Alexander Kassberg, adapting the music for the sound showers. Among other things, this involves removing the bass register, since bass diffuses the sound. She listens, adjusts, and listens again. The music flows and shimmers, violin tones intertwining with each other, light piano notes flashing through. It is the sober sound of glittering water.

— I had to dig out my old violin and play notes that I then layered over each other to create the sound. It can take quite a bit of tinkering before it turns out right, she says.

So what is the difference between making music and working with design?

— They blend into each other. When I write music, I often do it based on images. So it hasn't been that hard to enter Mr. Lervik's world. I think that's why we talk so well with each other.

— Same here, Alexander chimes in. There is music in objects in some way. That's why this project came about.

Dit ljuset leder is on show at Designgalleriet in Stockholm until 28 February.

SvD Magasinet Saturday 18 February 2017

Violinen shimmers like glittering water drops. Hand-tufted rug with a three-dimensional pattern, Ogeborg.

Alexander Lervik and Eva Dahlgren at Målerås glassworks, where all the glass objects are manufactured.

There is music in objects in some way. That is why this project came about.

The glass object Sångerskan reaches out with words.

In Trumsetet, interpretations of various drums form a warmly glowing cityscape.

Jorden, an image of volcanic activity where glass bodies move in rhythm with the music.

English translation of the original article. Text read from the scanned original; small transcription errors may occur.