Inger
Larsen
Designer Inger Margrethe Larsen has always been
fascinated with medals, in fact she feels that everybody should
have one. This is the idea behind the amusing collection of finely
worked plastic medals for lords and ladies, the housewives and the
homeless and other heroes and heroines of everyday life.
In 2003 the young designer Inger Margrethe Larsen
received a medal from the Danish Queen Margrethe in recognition
of her fine artisanship.
She was proud and happy, considering the whole thing a bit of a
show, while recollecting with a smile the series of brooches she
had designed the previous year. An amusing collection of medals
for the little heroes and heroines of everyday, awarded according
to the philosophy that everyone ought to have a medal, regardless
of age, sex or merit.
“The funny side is usually very close to
the serious one”, she says. “I’ve always been
fascinated by the way medals function as encouragement, a pat on
the shoulder, but at the same time I find their solemn symbolism
a little strange. That’s why I consciously aimed for a humorous
effect by twisting and en-larging my medals –
I mean, when are you actually a hero or a heroine?”
she asks.
“How hard should it be to get a medal? Is it at all reasonable
to receive a medal for something which has been downright fun or
simple? Or for the kind of jobs they don’t usually award medals
for, like homeless people selling magazines on streetcorners. Don’t
they deserve a medal for having the energy to stand there every
single day?” she asks.
The brooches have everything: pretty stripy bands
of green, pink and yellow and familiar motifs – a crown, a
star and a cross. The medal itself is a handsome size and made of
white plastic. “Why do medals always have to be ranked into
gold, silver and bronze medals?” she asks.
“I
feel that some of the most inspiring fashion designers are the ones
who distort and magnify things allowing us to see familiar objects
from a new angle. If we can’t invent sliced bread, then at
least we can turn it upside down, distort and colour it. It often
does not take that much to shake our ideas and conventions”,
she states
Larsen has pursued this way of playing with her materials ever since
she was a student at the Royal College of Art in London, where she
received her MA in 2002.
Biographical Details