For several years, Nordberg lived next to a supermarket with absurdly low prices, and it was this context that served as the starting point of The Baloney Sandwich. The store was always a last resort for groceries, but now and then Nordberg wandered the aisles looking for something edible. Some of the bread had a shelf
life of three months; some tasted like hay. The butter had no butter in it, and the salami was packed with nitrates and antibiotics. For a long time, this inedible baloney sandwich was on her mind – a sandwich which could not be classified as food but rather was something else. During this time, she was also absorbed by a range of casting techniques. Could the inedible baloney sandwich work as a mould material, or be incorporated in some other way in the casting process? It seemed logical to treat the sandwich more as a material than a food. However, Nordberg struggled to find a way to use the soft food-like material in casting production, and after a while she forgot about it. That is, until recently. As it turned out, transforming the baloney sandwich into a frozen state made it durable enough for casting, and the hard sandwich finally became the material by which to create a hollow cavity for a negative casting mould. Together with some other casted elements, the baloney sandwich was then used to construct a candleholder.

Throughout her practice, Nordberg has turned a critical eye on contemporary conditions of production, adopting an experimental and research-based approach. However, finding manufacturers who are willing to experiment is not an easy task. As a counter-strategy, she has developed her studio workshop such that it accommodates a variety of industrial techniques, including powder coating and metal casting. This framework has functioned as a stimulus, rather than a limitation, enabling the development of experiments that would not be possible in a large-scale manufacturing context. The Baloney Sandwish was made in 2019.

A loose continuation of Most Common Element, this project further explored the craft of welding. Here, it was accompanied by other industrial techniques, including metal casting, powder coating and vari- ous surface-treatment processes. All components of the different assemblages were metal offcuts and scraps from industries surrounding Nordberg’s studio, which she collected and stored in a “library of possibilities”; there, she arranged them into objects with a variety of possible functions. Employing an assemblage-like process, and leaning on improvisation within a set of predetermined rules, the project further investigated the tension between the uncontrollable and the standardised.

INGER – Optical Illusions
Homage to Inger Ekdahl

Inger Ekdahl (1922-2014) was an artist and Swedish pioneer in spontaneous painting during the middle of the 20th century. In many of her later paintings and sculptures she worked with optical illusions and prismatic effects. Ekdahl often worked from home and used, among other things, a vacuum cleaner as an aid in the production of her works. Inger Ekdahl has become more known for a larger audience and placed in an international context after her death.

There is a clear relationship between Jenny Nordberg and Inger Ekdahl’s work including methods that are both strict and controlled parallel with random elements and effects. The collection “INGER – Optical Illusions” consists of two objects that both generate rainbow phenomenons. One solar powered and the other one electrically powered. In the same way that Ekdahl worked in a home environment, Nordberg has developed a kind of home-adapted production line for the final surface treatment of the rainbow makers. The process is relatively controlled but also has some indeterminate elements.

“INGER – Optical Illusions” are designed during 2018 on behalf of Ystad Art Museum.

Photos by Korta Ben.

Nordberg’s fascination for the ultra-standardised is materialised in the BRICK series. Casted glass bricks with the exact measurements of old traditional bricks are composed into sculptural candle holders.
Besides the traditional dimensions of the bricks nothing else is standard – the BRICK series is hand casted in a small Italian glass foundry and patiently assembled in Sweden.

The Bricks series is designed for Swedish Ninja.

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The Open series for Minus Tio consists of three sculptural objects for storage.

When developing the Open series designer Jenny Nordberg looked for manufacturers who where willing to work with preexisting tools instead of making new ones for these particular objects. This approach was a deliberate strategy to contribute to a more open-source-like mindset within manufacturing where tools usually are locked to one client only. Working with preexisting tools also means that external and predetermined factors become part of the design process and final expression, something Nordberg appreciates.

Open comes in four different colours — ocher yellow, matte black, oyster white and rust. Buy here.

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