Rosenthal meets Arabia, Arabia meets Rosenthal

In 2006, as part of my course at Danmarks Designskole, I was an exchange student at the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA, where this project came into being. The idea is based on the tea ceremony as we know it in the West and in the Middle East.

Improving relations between the West and the Arab world is one of the most pressing tasks today, and I am convinced that art and design can give rise to an innovative and different way of thinking where achieving such a balance is concerned.

Arabic art and crafts are a major source of inspiration to me, as they were to my ancestors. And my desire to create my own pattern, inspired by an Arabic pattern, is particularly relevant in view of the world situation today. My specific aim has been to unite my own pattern with pieces of the modernistic and beautiful 'Suomi' collection from the German porcelain company Rosenthal. In other words, it is an attempt to transform the 'Suomi' tea set by adding my variation of an Arabic pattern and so combine two different ideas in one piece.

The pattern includes Georg Bush surrounded by the six European prime ministers, who supported him with most soldiers during the Iraq War, 2003 -. Including Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Tony Blair og Silvio Berlusconi.

My tea set is not intended as an industrial product, but rather functions as a statement.

Dimensions: (H/W/D) 25 cm x 35 cm 25 cm • Materials: porcelain, screen printing

Photographer: Ole Akhøj