Henriette Melchiorsen
Residency:
March 1 – May 31, 2022

Henriette Melchiorsen is a design-based artist working within the cross disciplines of critical design and activist art. Her practice investigates our relationship with objects—aiming to discover ways for humans to reconnect with the ecosystem and create a thriving world for our planet and its inhabitants. 

Henriette Melchiorsen is based north of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her practice arises from the rich tradition of Danish design. She has worked as a product and concept designer while simultaneously exhibiting experimental, innovative design artwork in Europe and Asia. Focusing on social aspects and the power of controlling the value chain she co founded FairTrade Designers in 2007. FTD initiates collaborations with craftspeople using design as an instrument for social change. The projects stretch across continents, from Yunnan Province in China to Ghana and Zimbabwe. 

Henriette is presently an associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy where her area of expertise is Strategic Design and Sustainability. Alongside teaching she partners with companies as a consultant and facilitates co-design processes towards green transition and circular economy based on sustainable business models and systemic change. 

During her residency at 18th Street Arts Center, she will develop and present The Time Is Now. A project/collaboration based on the assumption that overconsumption is a systematic error. She questions our relationship with things, by asking contributors to choose only twelve objects they would take along if they had to leave their home and didn’t know if they would ever return.

Artist Website
Fair Trade Designers Website
The Time is Now Website
Instagram