Helena Johansson Lindell

SWEDEN

 

Helena Johansson Lindell is a Swedish jewellery maker and artist based in Stockholm, known for works made ​​from a feminist, environmental friendly and playful perspective, often using recycled materials from old toys and other plastic products. Her work has been shown in many places around the world, including Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco, USA, ATTA Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand, and Schmuck Internationale Handwerksmesse in Munich, Germany. She studied Jewellery+Corpus at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm, Sweden and earned a BA in Visual Art from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway.

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About her work she says: “With a lowbrow attitude, a predilection for things kitschy, I make jewellery. I struggle with the hierarchical structures that we are collectively immersed in: the ideas that some things, some ways, and some people are better or worth more than others. In my work I try to embrace the materials, the methods and personal qualities that, from a societal perspective, are considered low class, low status, or bad taste. To own and be those things is my way to try and repeal the prejudice that is a result of those hierarchies

I pick up materials from flea markets and second-hand shops, plastics mostly and occasionally wood – toys and kitchenware. I cut them up and build new shapes from them using a saw, glue, and a file. I enjoy simple and repetitive techniques, as they create space for my intuition. And I enjoy the intimacy that comes from the use of hand tools. The inspiration I find in the material itself.”