In their textile project Brandnäva, the designer duo of LantzVarghans have explored nature motifs both from Skåne and from the duo’s home districts of Leksand and Umeå. Sometimes based on chance, the playful pattern repeats of the handprinted fabrics were created using a collage technique developed by the duo as they worked – a kind of analogue Photoshop with editable layers. While the pattern is less precise than if it had been created digitally, the technique enables a more collective creative process.
The starting point for the textile project and motifs is the duo’s fascination for nature and the impressions made on it by humans. The project’s title Brandnäva is the Swedish name for Geranium lanuginosum, a pyrophyte species that is more or less dependent on forest fires. It can lay dormant in the ground for several hundred years until it is heated up enough to grow.
The work also includes a soundtrack by Ivar Lantz (whose musician name is Golden Ivy).
The exhibition also presents a textile collaboration with the artist Kerstin Åström Carlén, who has transformed Brandnävainto two jackets. Kerstin operates the brands SKOLKA and RAST under the name STREJK.
Ivar Lantz and Elvira Varghans work as designers and illustrators and have created patterns for such clients as Trés Bien, Haglöfs and Polar Skate Co.
