Are there any elements that you find permeate your work?
There is always this constant exploration into how we as individuals interact with the elements around us; how we collect them and have emotional ties to them. This is an aspect that has always intrigued me and something that I seek to approach from different angles throughout my work.

What are the most important elements in your work?
I find that it is very dependent on the context of the given work. However, there’s always this sense of coherence that flows throughout materiality, form, color and texture, as if they’re all playing together in unison. In a broader sense, I seek to create form languages that speak to the curiosity of the viewer through details or texture, allowing for the work to invite the viewer in to explore more.

What were your thoughts behind partaking in last year’s Ukurant exhibition?
When I first met the team behind Ukurant, I became very curious about this group of young people who were still studying, just like I was, but who had these amazing ambitions, larger than any other design exhibition that I’d heard about in years. They had this energy about them, like: “Let’s tear traditions up and create new ideas” that I really found myself gravitating towards.

What do you find that Ukurant brings to the world of design?
To me, Ukurant embodies a genre of design that has been around for some years but had never had a place to call home in Scandinavia. It’s an expression that borders between design, arts and crafts. I felt like it was something that had been lacking in our part of the world; this idea of breaking free from the classic notions of Scandinavian design to instead bring a more curious and explorative approach to it.

What is a new perspective to you?
I find that a new perspective is when I encounter an object that I don’t necessarily understand but would like to know more about. Something that I haven’t seen before. That’s how it is with the best things out there; they’re the ones that get stuck in your head; the ones that take time for you to become familiar with.

How do you create new perspectives in your own work?
I’m terrible at continuity, at doing the same things over and over. Once I’ve seen an idea through to its end, my mind immediately races towards other projects that I’d like to pursue, exploring unknown techniques that can force me to look at my work from unexplored perspectives and allow me to evolve the narrative within the things that I create.

Click here to follow Esben Kaldahl’s work.

The Ukurant Perspectives 2021 Exhibition will be open from 16^th to 26^th of September 2021 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Ukurant Perspectives 2021
Amaliegade 38
DK-1256 Copenhagen K

Adding to that, an artwork by Ukurant alumni Davide Ronco & Pablo Dorigo Sempere for Muuto will be displayed at both the Muuto HQ during 3daysofdesign alongside the Muuto collection as well as at the Ukurant Perspectives 2021 exhibition.

Muuto HQ
Østergade 36-38
DK-1100 Copenhagen K