Interview with Sini Majuri

In this twisted era of War and insecurity, artists have a responsibility in capturing the nature of the time. I believe that Art is programmed deep into human heredity. As a glass artist I see craftsmanship; creating by hands, as a vital part of my art. The profound importance of craftsmanship sparks in our primitive instincts. It’s clicking in the Stone Age tools, step by step towards civilization. We have originally shaped our security, construction, innovation and creation with our hands. Therefore art has always been connected deeply in humanity. Art opens when it interacts. It is a form of communication that has retained the character of mystery throughout time. It’s a universal language. The language of beauty and spirituality. Even dangerous language. And it must be dangerous, because it always reveals our true essence.

I believe that my designing ritual is quite universal; singing terrible eighties ballads while making objects. This brings me the emotion of freedom. I work in Glass Studio Hytti, located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Suomenlinna island. The ferry ride from Helsinki’s noisy soundscape across the sea is meditative: like a transition to a state of creation. In winter, the island is very quiet. Therefore no audience for the creative rituals. I believe that glass blowing has a sense of ritual at its core. It’s a sensitive process with an elemental matter that behaves like hot lava. The movements of the process flow from the spinal cord. It’s a startling, sweaty and stained by smoke ritual. The moment when a mouth blown object is eventually used, has ritualistic aspects of respect and calmness.

I feel deeply grateful to be able to use studio made glass as my medium because slass is an expressive material that reaches the invisible layers of existence. As a contrast to its sensuality, glass is one of the key technologies that have shaped the modern World. It allowed us to discover the microscopic World as well as the distance of Space. It has magic and primordiality. History. Unknown.

Being an artist has always had its challenges. Pandemics had a major impact on the creative sector. However it forced artists to think fresh and also find new ways to cooperate and interact. Finding one’s own professional family is important. In the artist’s work, it is rare, but especially significant, to receive genuine feedback in a safe environment.

The World is so full of items that there must be something good in the design, if it’s spotted from the cascade of design. I believe that only the great design becomes iconic and sets new standards in its field. Good design also endures time, as it’s still awesome despite the passing of the years.

Handmade glass is a candidate on the UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind as the solution of the multinational application is expected in December 2023. Therefore using glass medium as the starting point of my design is an important and meaningful decision and one way of preserving the endangered craftsmanship.

In the future I hope to design studio made objects that are reaching also the young generation. I strongly believe that studio made objects create harmonious moments into everyday life. These moments of serenity are rare and valuable in a hectic World. My design philosophy is to create high quality objects that hold the value of uniqueness, humanity, history and provenance. These are values that resonate also in the state of the World today.

We should invest into design that resonated to us. There are multiple layers of value in the good design. The future design classics are the objects that define the era and also hold strong sentimental value. In the end these objects are the building blocks of for example our home and therefore also a way we define ourselves. Home reflects who we are and what we would like to be. It can be chaos or a serene safe haven.

My next design project is a cooperation with Finnish glass artist Marja Hepo-aho. We are reflecting the state of the World as well as humanity in a project that mixes contemporary glass with holographic art, haunting soundscapes and grim interpretation of AR.

I believe that design is programmed deep into human heredity. As a glass artist I see craftsmanship; creating by hands, as a vital part of my art. The profound importance of craftsmanship sparks in our primitive instincts. It’s clicking in the Stone Age tools, step by step towards civilization. We have originally shaped our security, construction, innovation and creation with our hands, by design. Therefore it has always been connected deeply in humanity. It is a form of communication and an universal language. In the era of War and pandemics, the designers have the keys of innovation and re-defining the meaning of design.

The future is difficult to define. Sometimes we forget that time moves forward yet the uncertainty gives value to life. In thousand years human is living in a society that has our era as a distant echo as we have have the past millennias in the current time. What remains and what is universal regardless of time is humanity.

Anyhow, here is my prediction for the year 3022: The Space mining is causing political controversy and the third generation of humans are living in the colonies of Mars. The first born Martian has high social signification, therefore her consciousness is popular download in the role-playing games. Space transport is a developing field as well as development of artificial plants that produce pleasant sensations for the taste sensors. People in Earth are living densely in dystopian metropolitan areas that stretch out to sea and to iceless polar regions. 60 % of the animals and vegetation have vanished. Food and everyday objects are printed at home. Natural fibers and pets are illegal and valuable merchandise. Autoimmune diseases and allergies caused by artificial food are common. Music from our time has been preserved in digital museums that are available only for the elite of the society. Community use self driving transport vehicles are made of light composite materials and powered by solar energy, yet people prefer to walk to place to place wearing their mandatory UV protection clothes needed in the 50 celsius daytime heat. Therefore people usually step outside during the night to meet their family and friends. To dance, eat together and talk about the day.

Icy Design Oy creates interior design objects, custom made light sculptures and limited edition series of household glass. Being a small design studio is a strength, because it makes it possible to offer exclusiveness. Every item is shaped by hand, signer and numbered. I’m also working with glass in the setting of contemporary art. Many of my sculptural works are surreal narratives captured inside thick glass and have hidden details in them that can only be seen from exact angle.

I see design as form of visual poetry - a language of beauty, functionality and style.

The glass designer has a great responsibility in defining what modern glass is today. The designer not only shapes the material, but the whole field and its future. My design philosophy is to reflect the calm Northern aesthetics with studio made glass. I'm especially interested in the recycled material that questions the relationship of quality and pureness of the glass medium in modern design. The rough texture of the waste glass with impurities is usually highlighted as a statement. In the international Year of Glass 2022 the preserving the endangered craftsmanship of glass as well as environment by respecting the material are starting points of my design.

The Orinnoro jar is designed to create harmonious moments into everyday life. When the tall jar is opened, it takes time and calmness to place items, such as flowers or food inside it to be preserved. These moments of serenity are rare and valuable in a hectic World. When the light interacts with the glass, the shadow looks vivid and alive because of the recycled materials texture. The shadow of the glass object is also an important part of the piece, because glass material is never static. It reacts to the surrounding light and environment.

I was invited to design a vase collection for DutZ Collection in Netherlands. The Jungle Vase collection won a Golden Award from A'Design Awards in 2018.

Glass is an expressive material that reaches the invisible layers of existence. As a contrast to its sensuality, glass is one of the key technologies that have shaped the modern World. It allowed us to discover the microscopic World as well as the distance of Space. It has magic and primordiality. History. Unknown.

The World is so full of items that there must be something good in the design, if it’s spotted from the cascade of design. I believe that only the great design becomes iconic and sets new standards in its field. Good design also endures time, as it’s still awesome despite the passing of the years.

I believe that designers have responsibility to find new ways to create more sustainable products. There are so many levels in design that can be focused. For example by creating everyday objects that endure time. Studio made glass has always a touch of uniqueness in it. For example every drinking glass has in a way their own charisma and soul. This makes the moment when the glass is used special. These kind of items are passed on in the family, not just used once and tossed away.

In 2022 I see that the Pandemics, War and the state of the environment are affecting the design field in multiple ways. Design is one way to take part into shaping the reality.

My last exhibitions in 2022 were It's Liquid in Venice and Home exhibition in The Art Museum Eemil, Finland. In both exhibitions I exhibited Family Portrait sculpture series that reflects the delicate and multidimensional whole of the human mind. The portraits are balancing on the border of beauty and monstrousness – aiming to mirror how the moments of encountering and seeing a person have changed radically during the pandemic. Faces are distorted, death is hidden behind the herringbone parquets, and the ciphers are tied to the shadows of the objects. Woman is a recurring theme in the sculptures: How she has been portrayed in culture throughout the millennia. Especially in the myths such as Eve and Pandora, an active and curious woman is the root of all evil. Lilith, the World’s first woman that sees herself as equal to man is demonized as well as strong matriarch Louhi from Kalevala myths. I often reflect these distant echoes of mythological women in the sculptures. At the same time, the sculptures are images of saints, movie stars and selfies tangled together with real life women. In the sculptures faces are waving, when viewed from the side, the eyes multiply. At the same time, a person is under water or in an old-fashioned picture frame, inside a futuristic cell like mass. Series reflect how our own perspective affects how we see each other. It’s always blurred by the time and culture. There are always hidden layers in us all.

My next exhibition project is a cooperation with glass artist Marja Hepo-aho in Venice. The project combines multiple art fields in a fresh way, brings modern tech such as AR and holographic projection together with contemporary glass sculptures. Particularly what interests us in the project is how a human identity is distorted. Society can crack an individual’s shell, turning shards into something desired. It’s startling how deep rooted these structures are and how blind we are in the end to see ourselves. The moments we set out to look at each other from a new perspective are rare. Identity is a living thing. It needs to be mixed, that’s a way to evolve.

The use of glass, precisely studio made glass, as a medium of artistic expression is a relevant choice for me. Glass is a universal language of beauty and invisibility. The inspiration in my latest works comes from the radical change in the human encounter in the pandemics.

I believe that one key to success is to find the unique feature from your work and focus on it. It might be the way you use the medium or a special new technique. Something that is fresh and unseen in the field. Then learn to put your thoughts into words and really talk about your design and what’s the cool factor in it.

My dynamic team has real chemistry. Marja Hepo-aho and Kari Alakoski are master glassblowers that ensure that the quality of the glass pieces is always excellent. My brother Simo is a professional smith and in charge of the glass blowing mold making. Heidi-Hanna Karhu takes my product photos. I'm happy to have people working with me that are masters on their field!

People can contact me via my homepage www.sinimajuri.com and also by email info@sinimajuri.com. You can also find me via Facebook @SiniMajuriDesign and Instagram @sini_majuri