Farkoster

“The boats, or ships, have become my signature and I’ve worked with them for much of my career. Through the boats, I discovered the possibilities of sand-casting in glass, which led me to make glass the focus of my artistry. The boat carries so much history and symbolism, with a thin hull forming the only protection from catastrophe. A boat is its own community. In the past, kings and captains were buried in their boats, with golden treasure, horses and everything. The dead were sent out to the open sea, in order to tumble off the edge of the horizon, into a new life on the other side. In the mid-nineteenth century, when the herring began to run low, fishermen from Bohuslän took their boats to Mobile, Louisiana, where they found and sold kerosene, making them rich. What we’ve been able to do with boats is incredible. To me, the boat is also a place of solitude. If you row out with your beloved, you are alone, isolated from the world. The boat is to me what the canvas is to a painter. I never get tired of it. Boats take hold of the observer. This is history in glass. It is so definitive, and cannot be changed.”

– Bertil Vallien

The collection, which is part of Kosta Boda Artist Collection, launched in 2018.