The Vessel

Graphic design: Bielke & Yang
An online magazine about crafts and material culture. Published by Norwegian Crafts

Read the latest issue of The Vessel here

The eighth issue of The Vessel, titled Craft in Public Space, is edited by Ida Højgaard Thjøme and Marianne Zamecznik and was launched on 11 October 2024.

In this eighth edition of The Vessel, we turn our attention to how crafts enter public spaces. We have invited eight contributors to reflect on how craft in public space can serve as a platform for care, activism, and community through materiality. Despite its significant yet often overlooked role in the history of public art, the documentation of crafts in public spaces remains fragmented and incomplete, a topic touched upon in this issue. We invite you to explore the articles and the projects herein, and hope they spark deeper conversations on the potential of craft in public space.

– Ida Højgaard Thjøme and Marianne Zamecznik

The issue features articles and essays by Elin Haugdal, Helene Duckert, Drew Snyder, Christer Dynna, Yaniya Mikhalina, and Andrea Pontoppidan.

Work by Kari Margrethe Christensen at Kilden
Vessels by Elisabeth von Krogh, exhibited in the old Government Quarter in Oslo
The journal Kunsthåndverk issue no. 6 – 1984

About The Vessel

The Vessel is an online magazine about crafts and material culture. The Vessel looks at the world through a craft lens – showcasing making practices, visual expression, and material knowledge from a multitude of perspectives.

Norwegian Crafts was originally set up as an online magazine designed to promote Norwegian craft artists internationally nearly ten years ago. Since then, the organisation’s programming portfolio has grown to include exhibitions, grant schemes, seminars, residencies, and much more. With The Vessel, we hope to entice more people to immerse themselves in craft, making practices and material culture.

The Vessel collaborates with external editors, artists, and writers to make the content of each issue relevant to people from different geographies and backgrounds. Norwegian Crafts opts to recruit new editors for each issue and leave the commissioning of articles and other content up to them.

You can follow The Vessel on Instagram and YouTube. Sign up for the mailing list here.

The magazine was launched on 5 November 2021 with its first issue Living Archives. See the press release and press images for the launch of the Vessel here.

Explore The Vessel here

From the interview 'On Fibre Optic Weaving and the Archiving of Landscape' witha Hilde Hauan Johnsen, written by Hilde Sørstrøm for The Vessel issue 1: 'Living Archives'
Preparing kiekie. From the interview 'Mahi ki te Awa Whanganui – Revival on the Whanganui River' with artist Matthew McIntyre Wilson, written by Isaac Te Awa for The Vessel issue 1: 'Living Archives'