Jenny Ekdahl Dear Disaster cabinet

double pattern1_white background double pattern2_white background double pattern3_white background front_environmentclose up scales_white background close up scales no hand_environment close up scales + hand_environment close up brass details

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Dear Disaster

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

By Justin Ray

Natural disasters are cognitively hard to process. They have the potential to cause many people a great amount of pain, however they also demonstrate a phenomenon of nature that leaves many to marvel at the earth's great power. It is this contradiction that provided a thesis for an insightful work of art. 

Dear Disaster is a cabinet covered in scales created by Swedish designer Jenny Ekdahl. One side of each scale is colored blue, white, or gray while the other side has been left plain. When flipped, the scales make patterns like waves in the ocean. The cabinet contains more than 4,000 parts altogether.

Ekdahl says the piece was created to help victims of traumatic disasters move forward from their unfortunate experiences. Ekdahl had an idea that mapping natural disasters could help a person mentally deal with the recovery process, and her hope is that the art will help a victim confront the disaster while aiding in the process of moving on from it. 

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