Carl Lindström

The last 100 years have seen an explosion in the numbers and varieties of objects. As real flora and fauna have declined, artificial species of objects have grown wild. But there is a lack of understanding of the origin, ontology and fate of these objects. They are coherent systems, rarely directly experienced; this makes them difficult to reuse and their materials are trapped in a persistent linear flow of consumption.

On top of a mountain in Gröndal, a primary school is to be demolished. The building has been standing since 1954. I intend to map material flows from the demolition of the school. In doing so, I have defined several typical objects – vulgar objects that in a cultural system lack value beyond their direct function, a value that thus ceases with the demolition.

There is a lack of both holistic material perspectives on this type of demolition and concepts for how the vulgar objects can be understood aesthetically. This almost labyrinthine flow needs to be approached from the ground as well as from the sky.