The various pressures of our times make it increasingly difficult to embrace uniqueness and to stay calm in the informational overflow that we are constantly bombarded with. In many spheres, the homogeneous is favoured over the heterogeneous, the habitual over the unexplored, and the safe over the adventurous, so it’s hard not to admire the creative spirit, self-expression and ingenuity of the next generation of Swedish fashion-design talent.

During Stockholm Fashion Week at the end of August, a specially selected group of alumni from The Swedish School of Textiles and a host of other great talents showcased their playful and eye-catching designs before an expectant crowd – and the audience was not disappointed. Through a flurry of materials, colours, details and unique cuts, these talented creators showed the world that they are the future of fashion and design, the young stars who will carry the torch for years to come and whose designs will become the cult looks of tomorrow.

For Dr. Martens, the now iconic footwear brand, its designs were born from a persisting sense of rebellious self-expression and originality that has permeated the brand ever since the 1960s. Through its unabashed attitude and ingenuity, the brand has created timeless and unmistakable designs, and become a true icon – and it all came from an urge to be different, a need to embrace one’s true self. So over the next pages, The Forumist is celebrating the shared sense of originality and self-expression between Dr. Martens and this new generation of Swedish design talent.

Reflecting the rebellious, original heritage of Dr. Martens, these young designers’ creations are bound to become future classics. Whether they spread their wings on their own, or choose a more treaded path, these talents will continue to innovate, push boundaries and stay refreshingly rebellious. This is only the beginning of a transition that will not only change their own lives, but the course of fashion and design.

Team credits:

Words by Petter Bladlund 
Photography by Andreas Karlsson
Styling by Emma Thorstrand 
Special Thanks to Dr. Martens 

Fashion credits: 

#1 Mukai Mary-Jane Shoes by Dr. Martens, Dress by Stina Randestad 
#2 Mukai Shoes by Dr. Martens, Coat by Alice Jardesten, Stockings: Stylist’s own  
#3 Vegan Pascal Chrome Boots by Dr. Martens, Dress by Lynn Tallvod, Stockings: Stylist’s own 
#4 Nyberg Boots by Dr. Martens, Dress by Linn Sohl 
#5 Vegan Pascal Shoes by Dr. Martens, Dress by Matilda Envall, Stockings: Stylist’s own
#6 Serova Shoes by Dr. Martens, Jacket, Trousers and Hat by Rave Review 
#7 Vegan Pascal Chrome Boots by Dr. Martens, Dress by Matilda Forssblad 
#8 Vegan Pascal Chrome Boots by Dr. Martens, Bodysuit by Kajsa Willumsen 
#9 Nyberg Boots by Dr. Martens, Dress by Karolina Centeno Norberg, Stockings: Stylist’s own 

“Curiosity has always been a strong driving force for me, and my creations require me to push myself to achieve something for every separate layer. I love discovering and understanding new things before even considering the actual construction and implementation, which my team works on. Preparing a photography session is like planning an adventure or a small film shoot, and all the organisational requirements this entails gives my life balance.”

Goudal’s starting point is her own extensive research through which she’s searching for environments that catches her interest and that moves her in one way or another. Her way of working is both time-consuming and minutely detailed, and her endless journeys and expeditions all around the globe have come to have a strong impact on her art. Goudal finds sections from nature and cityscapes, frozen moments and extremely thought-out cutouts that she photographs and puts together with large placed-in photo prints. The photographs are constructed as theatrical sets. Appearing almost as optic illusions, Goudal’s scenes and landscapes are brought to life by her unique, eye-catching compositions. The build up of the pictures acts as a connection between earth and sky and between the observer and what lies behind the image, beyond our knowledge. In this way Goudal manages to capture more than just a moment in time, more than specific a place, overturning the the fundamental laws of nature and architecture.

The second you lay eyes on Goudal’s art, you float into a kind of infinity where you find yourself closer and closer to her art, both physically and spiritually. Standing there, with the tip of your nose almost touching the large photographs, you perceive their structure but still can’t quite make out the construction of the images. This is one the things that makes Goudal unique – her ability to both expose and reveal at the same time. In that moment, when you feel that everything is completely inexplicable, you can’t help but wonder if you are actually there, on that street, on that beach, or in that jungle – or if you are just dreaming after all. Maybe this is exactly what Goudal wants the viewers to experience – the sense of not knowing and the need to use one’s eyes and imagination. Drawing inspiration from both Renaissance and Baroque art, Goudal is no stranger to using visual tricks and multiple perspectives, inviting the observer to contemplate her art.

Her artworks are not only pictures with strikingly centered compositions, they are also two-dimensional sculptures that dare to take up the kind of space they need to tell their own, unique stories. They engage all of our senses – and using the full depth of your imagination, you can almost feel the cold air sweeping against your skin, hear the ocean curling up against the shore, and smell the fragrance of the massive object that you are curiously staring at. It’s hard not to feel anything surrounded by Goudal’s imposing and deeply moving art, which will continue to challenge our sense of space, reality and time for years to come. As Goudal herself puts it “a picture is a space you can live in.” Head over to Fotografiska to experience it yourself.

Exhibition “Stations” until November 18, 2018; Fotografiska, Stockholm. For more information, visit www.fotografiska.com 

Team credits: 

Artist & Photographer: Noémie Goudal 
Words by Melinda Urbansdotter

Photo credits:

#1 Station V
#2 Observatoire VIII (Pulpit 2)
#3 Observatoire VI (Stalingrad)
#4 Station VIII
#5 Station VII

She also gave us this lovely playlist. Enjoy!

Tell me about you’re latest single “You’re Mine”. What’s it about and how did it take form?

The song is almost like all of my songs – inspired by things that has happened to me and then I make up the rest. I had two break-ups last year and they of course worked as inspiration for the song. But I think that it’s also, in a broader sense, about letting go of something that you believed in, which is hard.

Do you exploit yourself in your music and does it say a lot about you as a person?

It absolutely says something about me, and I think that shines through. Then again, I’m not super interested in writing completely autobiographical music, because reality is so nuanced. It’s more fun, and the songs get so much better, I think, if you freely relate to yourself and your experiences. Pick something that happened to a friend or something that you see in a movie. Or make a specific event represent something else. I think that when you listen to my music and everything that I’ve done you get an idea about who I am and how I work.

Is there any specific subjects that you tend to write about? Do you find some things easier to write about than others?

I think passion is a subject that’s easy to write about when you already have those feelings. I think it’s a form you can vary endlessly. Songs written about other things don’t speak to people in the same way. It can be about love, friendship or going to the club. Feelings, you know. There’s a reason why people write about it, and why people listen to it.

You want to relate.

Exactly. If I wrote a song about how much I like this café it would probably not be a very good song.

Is there anything that’s hard playing live? Are you the same person on stage as you are backstage?

I would say that I’m, sadly, very much myself on stage. I mean, in a way, there’s nowhere to hide. I had stage fright, or fright of singing in front of people, for super long and it’s a real kick to stand on a stage and to sing live. But it’s also extremely vulnerable, and if something ain’t right I feel very exposed, and that’s beacuse I don’t have this Sasha Fierce-persona that I can turn into – it’s just me. I’ve accepted that’s how I am and I try to see it as a strength instead of a weakness, which I used to think it was.

What determines a good and a bad gig according to you?

The gigs that I like, without naming a specific one, are those when I feel I get to dominate the room and where people are there to listen to me, and where I kind of choose the setting. That’s amazing. That’s when I get lost in the music and really mean what I’m singing. I really get into that feeling. Then there are times that feel more random, and that’s a really frustrating feeling. I had one of those gigs recently, where it feels like, especially with emotional music, you serve your heart on a silver platter, and then people are like… you know. I have to make an effort not to zone out. I don’t do gigs like that anymore, it’s very stressful.

You have collaborated with quite a lot of artists, do you have a favorite?

Absolutely. I love working with the producer and artist Saturday, Monday and how we also built a very good friendship. Because that’s a thing with collabs. Especially a song we made together called “The Ocean” feels very important to me. Then, of course, “Lägg dig ner” (“Lay Down”) which I wrote with Ji Nilsson and recorded with Mack Beats. That song also generated two great friendships.
Besides that it was people I clicked with musically, those two songs are not at all about personal experiences, but still feel a lot like me when I sing them. Just like what we talked about before, when you can see yourself in it regardless what the song is about. When you collab you sometimes jump into someone else’s vision and end up losing your own voice.

What’s the difference between producing yourself and not?

To write music is very much adjusting to things. Like when you get a beat from a producer you want to capture the feeling, and that of course affects the music and lyrics, and how I use my voice. I only do collabs that fit me, of course, and there’s still a lot of myself in all the collabs I’ve done.
When I produce myself the instrumental part and the singning pretty much grows simultaneously, and I think I focus a lot more on my voice, for better or for worse. You can easily sit and perfect it for a thousand years when you do everything by yourself. In a way it makes the music more ego-tripped. It’s quite a difference.

Which do you prefer?

Both ways are fun. I think it’s good, and fun, that regardless how talented another person is, they will look at me and my voice from the outside, and it’s really exciting what they choose to do with it. Although, the things I make myself lie closer to my heart, and feel closer and more important because it’s more me.

What are your hopes for the future?

I’m in a very good place emotionally right now where I’m very unconcerned about the future, and very uninterested in making plans. I just want to live in my next song and my next exciting thing to do, and it feels really good feeling that way.

Credits:
Words and photography by Ebba Ågren

Never been? This is probably one of the most cruisey, relaxed and good vibes festivals you will ever find, world wide, and when it comes to fashion these Swedes wont let you down either…

If you ever find yourself in Sweden this time of year it’s well worth hitching a ride up north and joining in… not only will you meet 1500 music & art lovers and a great line-up of artists. You get to see the countryside, rave in the forest and swim in a (enchanted?) river…

See you next year!

Malin Gabriella Nordin

With your recent exhibitions at Gallery Steinsland Berliner in Stockholm, it appears that, over the course of just a couple of years, you have quickly become a frontrunner in the next generation of Swedish painters. What’s your background regarding art?

“My dad is very interested in art, and was throughout my upbringing, and he also paints himself, so art was always omnipresent. It was as though there were never any other options and like there was never a time when I was choosing between this and something else. I’ve just kept on going to the best of my abilities. I’ve had the good fortune of having parents who never questioned what I was doing. When I started out at preparatory art school and even at the art academy, I realised how many people really struggle to convince their parents to let them follow their path as artists, since it’s not the most secure or most financially viable way to go.”

Your practice has evolved from delicate and distinctive collage works and sculpture to more abstract-oriented painting, which you showed recently at this year’s Market Art Fair in Stockholm. What informs your work today?

“Irrespective of techniques, my work is very much about composition and feelings – feelings that arise and are liberated while in the act of creating. Feelings about how colour and form affect each other and their surroundings and how balance and tension is created, depending on composition. It’s about exploring my curiosity and how I can create a work with colour, texture and form. Painting and sculpture is very carnal and direct for me. It’s fast, intense and messy. Collage work, however, is very time-consuming and meticulously focused. With a collage I can sit for hours and only move a fraction, a millimetre. Two very different mind frames come into play and it’s nice to shift between the two.”

“I don’t want to get stuck in something just because other people appreciate it, and I try to shift between various techniques that might offer new entries and perspectives. I want a work to bear a feeling of completion but, at the same time, also feel marked by opportunities. Everything surrounding me is processed and channelled in the work I do. I’m fascinated by nature, both inside and out. The works become a notion of what I see when I close my eyes – all that is fleeting, the thoughts and imagery that flash by continuously.”

Many practices today are nondescript, insofar as there’s no ownership by visible artist figures extending to the art on display. However, you strike me as an artist who is very much out there and of whom people are aware. There is a known face behind the art. What are your thoughts?

“I’m not quite sure why that is. I imagine perhaps it’s tied into social media. For me, Instagram has become a portfolio of sorts, where I also put out quite personal photos. It can be a tricky line to draw regarding how much of yourself to share. I tend to think it’s positive when it comes to galleries and artists and you are allowed to learn more about the processes behind the art you see and the people creating the works in a different way.”

You recently collaborated with the Swedish fashion brand Filippa K and had a book published by Orosdi-Back in a noted artist-book series – which are just a few of your many accomplishments. What stands out for you as a defining moment as an artist?

“I’m very grateful for all the things I’ve been able to do and experience – all the exhibitions and projects and the people I’ve met through doing them. To have the opportunity to work with Gallery Steinsland Berliner… Jeanette and Jacob really are so passionate about what they do and give me tremendous support, which means everything to me. I love them.”

“In 2013 I was invited by Jan Verwoert to take part in a group exhibition in Vienna, which felt huge. Jan has meant a lot to me personally and for the progress of my work. I met him through the National Academy of the Arts in Bergen, where he was a guest lecturer from time to time. He opened up a lot of doors in my mind that I did know were there.”

What’s next for you in 2016?

This summer I will be working in my studio. The past few months have been quite packed with exhibitions and a book release, etc, so I’m looking forward to getting back inside my little bubble. Right now I’m planning the upcoming year, which will entail a few exhibitions and, moreover, Yundler Brondino Verlag will be releasing a book about my work, which I’m really looking forward to.

Inka and Niclas Lindergård

Your imagery sits somewhere between the mystical and ethereal, emphasising the grandeur and beauty of natural surroundings, and has often been marked by intervention. Does the process relating to travels and scouting locations need to be rather meticulous?

“There are a lot of uncontrollable circumstances that have to line up perfectly in our favour before we can start photographing for real. But going around, looking for the best spot to realise an idea, is also a part of our work that we truly enjoy. We are interested in the interplay between the view of nature and photography. So the travelling has to do with our working with landscapes and romantic scenery, but also with the kind of inspiration and chance to work undisturbed that it gives us. It sounds like a paradox, but for us, travelling has a lot to do with isolation. Our process is, in general, time-consuming. We are out working for months, and if everything goes really well, we return with a handful of photographs.”

An earlier project of yours, Watching Humans Watching, presents the dynamic between humans and animals and was also one part of a photography book of the same name that was the winner of the Swedish Photobook Award in 2012. What can you tell us about the project?

“That series was a starting point for us as a duo, and though our methods have shifted since, we are still very much on the same path. Back in 2008 we got interested in how groups of tourists in nature show flock behaviours. They move in seemingly predetermined patterns and dress in clothes that mimic the colours of unfamiliar surroundings.”

“We started to travel to places where we knew people would go to explore what is perceived as ‘untouched’, raw nature. By detaching ourselves from the groups and individuals, we found we were able to approach the tourists with the same distance a nature photographer applies when photographing wild animals. We hid in bushes and developed diversion strategies. If anyone noticed we were photographing them, the moment was gone and we had to move on. It started as an investigation of the human relationship with nature and the open landscape through the concept of humans as animals. But, with time, it also came to deal a lot with our perception of nature as the great unknown, expectations of what nature is supposed to be like, where those expectations come from and how we are supposed to act in nature. Many of the tourists in the photographs are truly mesmerised by the nature they are in, but many of them also seem to be waiting for some kind of magic to happen, like they are expecting triple rainbows, unicorns and dinosaurs.”

Being an artist duo, how does the process of working on site operate between the two of you?

“For technical, aesthetic or conceptual reasons, we often end up photographing just before, during and after either sunrise or sunset. The colours of the sky and the intensity of the light is usually good for 20 to 30 minutes or so. This means that, when everything lines up the way we want it and we start pressing the button, there’s often a bit of stress and excitement involved. We are mostly quiet and just talk instructively to each other. The shoots often involve some kind of action or gesture, so one of us is managing the camera and the other carrying out the action. Who does what just depends on the circumstances. We do, however, take turns at being the one who pushes for a couple of more shots and an extra 50 tries, when the other one wants to quit and go home. Many of our works would just not be possible to do alone.”

What excites you about contemporary photography today?

“Oh, that’s tricky. Japan is coming in strong. A couple of years ago, it was really hard finding any photography from Japan besides [Hiroshi] Sugimoto, [Nobuyoshi] Araki, Rinko [Kawauchi] and a couple of others. Now it feels like it’s new, really interesting young names and books all the time. Otherwise, contemporary photography is generally experimenting with the past and the digital present from within the realm of the medium, making use of old and new tools and responding to the mass circulation and consumption of images.”

You’re working on a new book and also preparing for your first solo show at Grundemark Nilsson Gallery in Stockholm. What will we be able to see?

“Using landscape photography as the waypoint, the works in the exhibition have their base in reworkings of visual clichés and the characteristics of the photographic medium. Our interests lie in the intersections and interplays between the photographic and physical realities. Sunsets are pulled down to earth, a cloud of glitter is suspended midair in the form of a sparkling nebula from the NASA archives, the Yosemite Half Dome is covered by a big black blob.”

“We view our actions – be they throwing powder into the wind or building a sculpture out of branches – or light briefly colouring some rocks as performances done in alliance with the landscape, the elements and the camera. This time we are going up a bit in print sizes and we are currently working on a couple of sculptural objects that will communicate with the works on the walls.”

“It’s great to be showing in Stockholm and maybe, just maybe, fingers crossed, we will also have the new book – The Belt of Venus and the Shadow of the Earth – ready by then.”

Julius Göthlin

Your work while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, included geometric-orientated collages and drawings, and has since revolved around large-scale spray paintings alluding to space and galaxies. What can you tell us about this body of work?

“During my years at the Royal Institute of Art, I was working a lot around the idea of using boredom as a creative asset. During very labour-intensive projects I used to cut and paste painted strips of paper into minimal blocks of large abstract compositions and architectural structures, where the purpose was to investigate how barely visible gradients in a complicated pattern of repetitions can trick the brain into experiencing movement – to suggest a third and a fourth dimension.”

“After many years of working with this slow-paced method, I increasingly started to feel like I had reached a point where I had got the answers to the questions I was interested in and started to feel the urge to break the structure that I had built up for myself. I really missed the more experimental part of allowing chance and accident to drive me, rather than preplanned ideas, and quite naturally, my methods of work crossed over to starting to use spray paint in a form that dealt with the ideas of trying to break the rules of the two-dimensional format but still stay within a two-dimensional world.”

“I have always been very attracted to painting, but have a weird relationship with it. The idea of being able to enter a two-dimensional object that creates a world is very appealing to me. However, I have always been distracted by the fact that a painting usually leaves behind traces of the person who made it, making it hard for me to ‘believe’ it to be something more than a beautiful object, which takes away most of the mysterious qualities for me.”

“During the past few years I have been very hooked on the idea of making paintings without actually touching the canvas with brushstrokes and such. By using spray paint, I have opened up a way of working in a more undefined format than before, but that still has a lot of connections with my previous works and touches on the topic of what is being created in the gap between chaos and order, fragment and reality.”

As an emerging artist, what’s your opinion of today’s art market?

“It is a very difficult question. Generally, here in Sweden at least, I feel like it is very hard to enter the art market today as a young, unestablished artist. There are relatively few galleries and spaces that dare to bring in such artists, which I feel is a bit of an issue in terms of making the scene more vibrant. Therefore, I am very happy to have the chance to work with Belenius/Nordenhake gallery, which I feel is one of the exceptions and at the same time a gallery that has a very nice balance between older and younger artists. That, I feel, creates something very interesting and necessary.”

“I feel like, right now, there is a bit of a transition phase, where younger artists are getting more of their inspiration and ideas about art from social media and the internet in general, which is changing the art market a lot in ways that I feel have a lot of pros and cons. But at the end of the day, it’s mostly positive.”

You’ve got a new solo show coming up at Belenius/Nordenhake gallery. What can we expect to see?

“In my upcoming exhibition – Automatic Target Recognition – I have been working further with materials such as spray paint and similar in large-scale paintings where the associations lead to the rhythm of the body, as well as between the outer and inner depths in a transition from macro- to micro-cosmos. In the process of making the new works I have allowed myself to leave more room for accidents, chances and allowing the individual qualities of the materials I work with to decide the result, rather than having a strict idea of what I want the work to look like from the beginning.”

“The title Automatic Target Recognition refers to a device that is being used to recognise objects and targets based on data being captured from sensors. This technique is being used in airport body scanners and other safety systems and is something I’ve been fascinated about mimicking in different ways to let structures in the materials decide where the paintings are going.”

What’s in store for you in 2016?

Right now I am putting all my energy into and focus on the upcoming exhibition and will hopefully get everything done on time for that. Later this year, I have a couple of shows in the States, along with some other very interesting projects and things coming up in the autumn that I am very much looking forward to but cannot speak much about at the moment. But before getting into that, I will take the time to get some very wished-for weeks of pure vacation!”

Éva Mag

In past work you interacted in a very physical manner with your clay sculptures, almost appearing as though you were wrestling. How did you arrive at working with clay?

“It was the period where I just had my second child and my body was very weak. I thought about my great-grandmother. She gave birth to 14 children. I started to visualise the body of a woman and how theoretically she could be penetrated while she is breastfeeding a child and at the same time she could have a new baby growing in her belly. Immense energy evolved in me as I thought of this image. The clay responded to my basic needs of physical resistance.”

“Collaboration with an artist friend came at the right time. I could work with the imagery in drawings and then, later, a 24-hour performance, where the idea was to sculpt a woman out of a huge amount of clay and make her stand on her feet, both physically and metaphorically.”

“After starting my master’s I was able to make full-size bodies with the same core idea of making bodies stand up on their feet. Where it looks like I am wrestling with the body, I try to find lifting techniques to make the body stand up with the least amount of damage. The body was, of course, way too heavy and as seen in some pictures, I literally couldn’t breathe.”

After graduating from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, you had a very busy year, including doing shows at Galleri Riis and hangmenProjects in Stockholm and participating in a group show at Sven-Harry’s Art Museum, Stockholm, that focused on the frontrunners of contemporary art today in Sweden. What would you recognise as the defining moments in your practice and career so far?

“Clay totally opened up my practice. The nature of the clay and my limitations decided the developments. I saw the inner armature of sculpture as an obstacle, which is why the fabric skin, sticks and stands became the world surrounding the body, exoskeleton. The exoskeletons in my work represent the psychological, cultural, societal and the political environment that shape us.”

“Both my parents were tailors and I grew up in a full-on DIY culture, which extended from pig slaughtering to building houses, along with the problems associated with being an isolated family in a new country without the support offered by big families in Transylvania. I see my experience and the urge to understand as knowledge, both technically and psychologically speaking – the kind of knowledge I believe people and society don’t value enough. It feels like papers matter more than looking at what people really are made of. People’s experiences are a resource, no matter how they grew up.”

“I could also mention site-specificity beside collaboration as important steps for my development. A good example is the show at hangmenProjects, where there was a drain in the middle of the room. An old idea to make an ice sculpture suddenly became possible.”

You’re also a performance artist and did a performance during Stockholm Art Week, held earlier this year at the historic Drottningholm Palace Theatre, for which you also co-wrote the songs. What can you tell us about it?

“Hubris, dream… I want so badly to be back on that stage. When I was asked to do a performance for DTM, I was working with Jenny Palén on an intense two-week project called Eva Is the Snake in Paradise at the Royal Art Academy. We were really happy with the result of the show, so we ended up developing that project for DTM. The timeframe for DTM was 20-30 minutes. The stage floor with its three degrees inclination and mechanical thunder effects were good starting points. At the art academy we worked with installations, thinking of scenography and performance, so it was important to keep the space in mind when we developed the show for DTM.”

“We wanted to create a balance between humour and seriousness inspired by divas such as Marlene Dietrich, through the costumes, the characters and the moves. Of course it is great to have a reason to use beautiful long dresses. The timeline of the script consists of songs that I wrote with my partner Peter Holm many years ago. I wanted to work with the music duo Siri Karlsson and hear their arrangements of the songs.”

What’s next for you in 2016?

“Jenny and I plan to continue working with the show and I just sent sculptures to Körsbärsgården Konsthall, in southern Gotland, for a group show that will run until September 30. Apart from that, I look forward to spending more time at IASPIS in Stockholm, where I have a residency going until the end of September, and then continuing to work in my studio with ongoing projects.”

Credits:

Interviews by Ashik Zaman

Malin Gabriella Nordin
L
Nordin in her studio
Bird
Spirits Fly, Fingers Curl
Through the Swells
Still Life
1c-300
Untitled-1
Untitled-2
Nordin in her studio © Erik Wahlström

malingabriella.com

Inka and Niclas Lindergård
The Belt of Venus and the Shadow of the Earth IV (2013)
Becoming Wilderness VI (2013)
Family Portraits III (2015)
Becoming Wilderness XVII (2014)
Vista Point I (2014)
Becoming Wilderness X (2013)
Becoming Wilderness XXVII (2015)
Becoming Wilderness XXVIII (2015)
The Pentagram Position XV (2014)

inkaandniclas.com

Julius Göthlin
All works: UNTITLED (2016)

juliusgothlin.com

Éva Mag
Film still Stand Up
En stund av geometrisk lycka
Ice on Rawhide (2016)
Original #21
Composition
I dream of Meadows

evamag.se

Photography © Johan Borgqvist

Freddie Meadows grew up in Åhus and London, places that aren’t really associated with waves. Perhaps that’s what led him to discover something as un-Swedish as surfing. At the age of 13 he started wave riding and soon became consumed by a fascination with a sport that had no rules and the close connection to nature surfing brought with it.

“The feeling that hit me right away was that you come into contact with nature in an incredible way – more than with any other sport,” he says. “Waves can travel huge distances across our oceans – at times, 5,000km – and then you get the chance to be part of the final chapter of a wave’s journey before it disappears forever. That energy does not exist in any other sport.”

After many years on tour and many competitions – among other highs, he scored a fifth place in the European Championships for under 18s in 2006 – Meadows is currently on a sabbatical from the contest world. Instead, he is at home in Sweden in search of a little magic in the Baltic Sea. And he is always ready to jump in his car to drive to where the waves are. “Sometimes I only have two hours to get my stuff together before I have to go. As each opportunity comes so rarely, the feeling of missing something can be pretty hard to deal with. All I think about is how to time it as best as I can.”

Over the years, Meadows noticed that, in order to win, it was necessary to go against the morals and respect that is so deeply connected to surfing. So, instead of touring, he followed his dream to find world- class waves in Sweden. And, in October 2014, he found them. “I went on my first trip in the woods, in the wilderness. And there, by the furthest part of the coast, I found a sort of balance. It was as if it were fate. I saw the best waves I had ever seen in Sweden – so big, heavy and perfect. It was exactly what I was looking for. I named the best one Valhalla.”

He thinks that Sweden’s surfing culture is exciting because of what can be found in places where you’ve never seen waves before. Surfing in Sweden is better than people think. “We have a fairly large community here,” Meadows says. “But because of our circumstances, we end up always in the same places. But Valhalla meant that I discovered something I had never seen before in Swedish waters, which makes it so exciting.”

When pushed to talk more about why he semi-retired from competitive surfing, he mentions feeling a strength within him. “I thought, ‘Let’s ignore all of the things that I have lived for, and instead focus on new projects.’ It was natural, because I love being creative. Film and photography have always held a deep interest for me. So I decided to do what I’ve kind of wanted to do my whole life – surf the magical waves here in Sweden, and then document it all with the right people. It’s when I’m on these adventures that I am at my happiest. I hope that what we produce can inspire people the way I’ve been inspired.”

Even though he now surfs 100 days a year, compared with the 300 days he used to just a few years ago, he is happier than ever today. “I feel so content when I’m in my car, heading to a place with the hope that there may be good conditions for surfing. I get so excited every time I go back to places that I know already – it’s like seeing an old friend. I hope I have inspired people to not only surf, but also to go out and discover. Go out and look for waves yourself. Anything is possible. That’s the best thing about surfing – the adventure.”

And the future?

“I hope and believe that I will keep going with all these exciting projects for the next three to four years. Then, perhaps, I’ll start competing again. Who knows?”

What is your preferable style when you’re not wearing a wetsuit?

“I like dressing comfortable and casual but at the same time being well dressed.

Credits

Words by Fredrik Wallin

Photography by Oskar Gyllenswärd

Surf Photography by Fredrik Skogkvist & Calum Creasey

Film by Damaspirit

Styling by Maria Barsoum

Grooming by Sherin Forsgren & Kevin Murphy

Special thanks to Velour By Nostalgi

1- 2 Bendix Jacket, Désiré Sweater and Standard Special Weave Shirt

3-4 Dion Jacket

5 Cornel Coat, Bertin Jacket, Fredrik Sweater and Dickie Shorts

6 Marc Bomber Jacket, Standard Safari Shirt and Adan Chinos

7 Zipped Shirt Jacket

All items are available at Velour.se

Credits:

MIDSOMMARDANS MED STARDUST by Stefan Holm