The Past Has a Future : Glasriket's Continuing Legacy

Småland, a southern county in Sweden, has seen the rise and decline of the historical and culturally significant glass manufacturing region known as The Kingdom of Crystal (Glasriket). Using this industrial region as a context, this paper explores the possibilities of nostalgia in several forms, historical, personal, and progressive, for the continuation of this region and how it may survive into the future and for the continued growth and survival of a high level of glass material knowledge within Glasriket and in wider Sweden. The paper demonstrates how we are at a pivotal point in the history of Glasriket and the vulnerability of glass craft knowledge is evident. Using my own personal experiences acquired while living and working within the region, I attempt to bring historical glassmaking practices into a meaningful dialogue with contemporary artistic discourse. This links to to my own works where I aim to demonstrate a reverence to the past but imbrue the works within a current conversation.