Among the projects with which Kajper identifies the strongest, she mentions two projects carried out in the field of functional glass and two projects carried out in the field of artistic glass. The set of glasses Top-Bottom / Góra Dół belongs to the first category. Each glass from this set has two containers, one of which serves as a base.
It’s actually hard to determine which part is the base and which part is the container. This project was the artist’s diploma thesis. She said in a conversation with culture.pl that she wanted to create vessels that would offer greater than average possibilities of use and would encourage the user to play with form.
After I started to ”learn glass” I couldn’t understand why the forms on sale in stores are so perfect, symmetric, flawless and unnatural. To me, they seemed to be crying from the shelves “this isn’t us, we’re different!”. Now that I’m fully conscious of the character of matter, I always try to “sneak in” the true nature of glass – says Agnieszka Kajper.
Her second favourite project carried out in the field of functional glass is the set of glasses Volver, which was commissioned by the furniture company Meble VOX. The designer describes them as “humorous vessels with dents in the sides, which refer to trends that are linked to fun design”.
In the case of a material that gives you almost unlimited possibilities, the trick is to remain reserved when choosing means so as to not overdo anything. I very strongly believe in the motto “less equals more” – says the artist.
The projects made from artistic glass which she mentioned are Garden Works and the installation Backbone / Kręgosłup. The first project was created in the framework of Glasernen Garten von Frauenau, a project of the Museum of Glass in Frauenau in Germany. Garden Works became a part of this museum’s permanent exposition.
This is a form of playing with associations and matter. Gardening accessories were transposed into sculptural objects – explains the artist.
Backbone / Kręgo-słup was created as Kajper’s diploma work. This piece is an installation consisting of glass sheets located in a garden. A steel construction, which joins all the elements of this work together, extends through the middle of each sheet. The artist wrote about her project:
Multiple glass wheels overlap, distort each other and reflect reality. The installation is shaped by time, the surroundings and the wear of the materials. This work changes its character depending on the processes occurring in nature.
Gleams on walls which were reflected by pieces of glass and mirrors started the artist’s love for the material. Such gleams fascinated her as a child and they still fascinate her today.
Glass offers unlimited possibilities. At the stage when this material is still in a liquid state, you can create almost any form out of this material – says Agnieszka Kajper in a conversation with Culture.pl. - The hot forming of glass is an art of balancing between the liquid and the solid states. When glass is in such a form, it may be cut, bended, deformed, joined or twisted. The potential of the material and the qualities of the material are always a starting point for me. Translucency, the permeation with the surroundings, are undoubtedly the strongest advantages of this material. These magical qualities offer the possibility of expressing what is immaterial.
Before Kajper began to create from glass, she amateurishly painted and drew. Her interest in glass and ceramic appeared naturally as the prospective designer lived in the vicinity of the Ceramic Factory in Bolesławiec. There, she participated in workshops even before she began to study at the academy in Wrocław.
Tomaszów Bolesławiecki, a village in which the Borowski family ran and still runs their own glassworks, was also nearby – Kajper reminisces. - Someone once told me: if you don’t have to become an artist, don’t become one, if you have to, do it. I don’t entirely consider myself as an artist, because I like to feel that what I do is needed, that is why I always did better as a designer. Right now, drawing and painting are once again bringing me a lot of joy, I treat these activities as a form of contacting myself. To me this is a kind of meditation, purification and self-therapy.
To Agnieszka Kajper, it is important to share her experiences and passion, that is why, after her studies, she founded the Useful Producers of Beauty association which works for the benefit of children and young people. In 2009, together with Agnieszka Bar and Karina Marusińska, Kajper founded the design group Wzorowo. In Wrocław, the author of Garden Works runs a drawing school named The Open Studio / Pracownia Otwarta. This school is an important part of her plans for the future - she intends to expand the curriculum with courses in functional art.
Author: Katarzyna Zacharska, May 2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa
Exhibitions:
2013
The group exhibition POCO Art at Agora / POCO Sztuka w Agorze, Agora, Wrocław
2011
Un-polished 11, the Wzorowo Group, Inno Design Tech Expo, Conference and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong (China)
Un-polished 10, the Wzorowo Group, Centar za dizajn Hrvatske Gospodarske Komore, Zagreb (Croatia)
The Auction of Design / Aukcja Dizajnu, the Wzorowo Group, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź
Un-polished 9, the Wzorowo Group, Polish Design Week, Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest (Hungary)
Inside-Outside, Glasmuseum Frauenau, Frauenau (Germany)
The Mirror / Zwierciadło, the Wzorowo Group, the Przemiany Festival, Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw
Ethnoinspirations / Etnoinspiracje, the Wzorowo Group, National Museum, Gdańsk
Un-polished 8 , the Wzorowo Group, Museum für Angewandte Künst, Cologne (Germany)
Products of the Year 2010 on Tour / Przetwory Roku 2010 On Tour, the Wzorowo Group, the Sąsiedzi 2.0 Festival, Warsaw
Un-Polished 7, the Wzorowo Group, Designers Days, Paris (France)
Un-Polished 6, the Wzorowo Group, Collective Location, Milan (Italy)
Products of the Year 2010 on Tour / Przetwory Roku 2010 On Tour, the Wzorowo Group, BWA Design, Wrocław 2010
Garden Works, Glasmuseum Frauenau, Frauenau (Germany)
Designed in Poland, the Wzorowo Group, Museum Quartier, Vienna (Austria)
Products 5 / Przetwory 5, the Wzorowo Group, Soho Factory, Warsaw
Polish Design – the 10th Anniversary of ELLE Decoration / Polski design – 10-lecie ELLE Decoration, the Wzorowo Group, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
Fluowaste / Fluoodpady, the Wzorowo Group, Łódź Design Festival, the Grohman Villa, Łódź
Arting Project / Projekt Arting, the Wzorowo Group, the Bielsko-Biała BWA Gallery, Bielsko-Biała
Materia Prima, the Wzorowo Group, the Bielsko-Biała BWA Gallery, Bielsko-Biała
Un-Polished 5, the Wzorowo Group, the International Design Fair CODE, Copenhagen (Denmark)
Unpolished 4, the Wzorowo Group, the Nordic Design Fair CODE 2010, Copenhagen (Denmark)
Unpolished 3 Junges Design aus Polen, the Wzorowo Group, Museum Tuch + Technik Kleinflecken, Neumunster (Germany)
Unpolished 2, the Wzorowo Group, DMY International Design Festival, Berlin (Germany)
Polish Glass Design / Polski szklany dizajn, Archdays, the Polish Institute in Bratislava, Bratislava (Slovakia)
Womanly Design – the Designers’ Boutique / Babski dizajn - Bootic Projektantów, the Gallery of Interiors Domar, Wrocław
The Art of Exchange / Sztuka wymiany, the Wzorowo Group, Fabryka Trzciny, Warsaw
Proecodesign / Proekodizajn, the Wzorowo Group, Warsaw Design Week – 1500 m2 do wynajęcia, Warsaw
Halo!gen. Own Space / Halo!gen. Przestrzeń własna, the Wzorowo Group, Stara Fabryka Drutu, Gliwice
Proecodesign / Proekodizajn, the Wzorowo Group, Arena Design, International Poznań Fair, Poznań
A Lesser-Poland Thing / Rzecz Małopolska, the Wzorowo Group, the Etnodizajn Festival, Kraków
Proecodesign / Proekodizajn, the Wzorowo Group, the Gallery of Interiors Domar, Wrocław
Anarchy in Space / Anarchia w Kosmosie, the Wzorowo Group, the U Gallery, Wrocław
2009
Products 4 / Przetwory 4, the Wzorowo Group, 1500 m2 do wynajęcia, Warsaw
Warsaw under Construction / Warszawa w budowie, the Wzorowo Group, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
Sic-Mass, the Wzorowo Group, BWA CiS, Wrocław
Kaleidoscope / Kalejdoskop, the Wzorowo Group, Łódź Design Festival, the Tymieniecki Zone, Łódź
Łódź Design Festival, the Tymieniecki Zone, 3rd International Design Festival, Łódź
Design in Containers / Design w kontenerach, the Wzorowo Group, Gdynia Design Days, Gdynia
Underwater Wrocław / Podwodny Wrocław, the Wzorowo Group, Bourgeois Brewery, Wrocław
Black and White. Young Poland Design, the Wzorowo Group, Tel Aviv (Israel)
The Same, Only Differently / To samo, tylko inaczej, Galeria v Biskupské rezidenci, Hradec Králové (The Czech Republic)
Design-Antidesign / Design-Antydesign, the Museum of Architecture, Wrocław
Wzorowo (A. Bar, A. Kajper, K. Marusińska) - BB Gallery, Kraków
The Sleeping One and the Dwarfs / Śpiąca i krasnoludki, the Spot Foundation, Poznań
2008
Glassplastic und Garden, Münster (Germany)
Plastic Surgery / Operacja Plastyczna, Buduar, Wrocław
Flight Number Ten, International Design Biennale in Saint-Etienne (France)
Handicraft / Robótki ręczne, Marcin Mierzicki Safe Project / Sejf project, (co-author: Agnieszka Bar), BWA CiS, Wrocław
The Sleeping One and the Dwarfs / Śpiąca i krasnoludki (co-author: Agnieszka Bar), a May Holiday with Design, the Silesian Castle of Art and Enterprise, Cieszyn
The Sleeping One and the Dwarfs / Śpiąca i krasnoludki (co-author: Agnieszka Bar), BWA CiS Wrocław
Artistic Glass / Szkło Artystyczne, the Pro Arte Gallery, the Association of Polish Plastic Artists, Zielona Góra
2007
Graduates 2007 / Absolwenci 2007, BWA Awangarda, Wrocław
2006
The Grand Canyon of Art / Grand Kanion Sztuki, the Academy of Fine Arts, Wrocław
The Showcase of Young Art SURVIVAL 4 / Przegląd Młodej Sztuki SURVIWAL 4, Main Station, Wrocław
Polish-Polish Phrase Book / Rozmówki polsko-polskie, Centre for Culture, Brzeg
2005
Young Ones’ Glass / Szkło młodych, BWA Wrocław
Awards:
2011
6th Snow Design Competition, the Wzorowo Group, Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice (Japan ) 5th place for the project Kaleidoscope
4P Penman, Poet, Proze, Public Space, the Wzorowo Group, Kraków
Awards for the designs of the installations Halfviews / Półwidoki and Contexts / Konteksty
2010
Products / Przetwory, the Wzorowo Group, Warsaw, Poland
Nomination for the title Product of the Year for the project Lap Top Lady
Arting Project / Projekt Arting, the Wzorowo Group, Bielsko-Biała
Award of the District Administrative Office in Bielsko-Biała for the reflective elements Odbielski
Arting Project / Projekt Arting, the Wzorowo Group, Bielsko-Biała
Award of the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the covered bowl Kle
Glaserne Garten von Frauenau, Glasmuseum Frauenau, Frauenau (Germany)
Award for the installation Garden Works
2008
Glassplastic und Garden, Münster (Germany)
2nd place for the installation Back-bone
2007
The Best Diplomas of 2007, the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław
2006
Nomination for the Bombay Sapphire award
Top 10 distinction
