Sofia Karyofilis presents Norway Designs NÅ Vol. 5 IDENTITY with a series of knobbed bowls in copper. The title "Tripod" alludes to the bowl's three legs. Each leg is modeled with a hammer as a recess in the same plate the bowl is made of. In this way, the legs become part of a larger, coherent material. By placing the legs in different places and with varying depths, each bowl gets its own character. Budding rather than using the corpus technique simplifies the process so that the idea of resistance and malleability clearly emerges in its simplest and most clean-cut form. In working with the series , Karyofilis has worked actively with the metal's material identity.
For Karyofilis, the combination of resistance and modelability is the most identity-creating thing about metals. Each metal has a different temperament at different amounts of resistance and varying degrees of malleability. Gold is soft to shape and also the most flexible. Silver has the same properties, closely followed by copper, which is the metal Karyofilis uses most. The metal's surface also changes over time under the influence of the environment; it oxidises, irritates and rusts. These factors are all characteristics that contribute to creating an identity, and Karyofilis uses this actively in creating a story.
When Karyofilis uses corpus technique to hammer sheet metal into three-dimensional form, the experiences with material identity are an important player in the choices she makes. To make this clear in a smaller series of utility objects, Karyofilis chose to make a series of small, knobbed bowls. The bowls are intended to be used to store jewelery and other small items, or without any content other than themselves as a form. Karyofilis has chosen to leave the surface untouched without any form of surface treatment. It is only colored by the oxidation that occurs naturally when the plate is heated and softened before hammering, in addition to the changes that occur naturally in the material over time.
About Sofia Karyofilis
Sofia Karyofilis was born in 1978 and grew up in Oslo. She has a master's degree in metal and jewelery art from 2014 at the University of the Arts in Oslo. Karyofilis mainly works with sculptural expressions in metal.
