Niklas Ekholm

Prodding at sand is as elemental as it gets, a human touching the world, the self flowing outward.

The finger-shaped hollow becomes an emptiness, a joyous vessel, a selfless form.

Cast it in metal, and the finger returns, renewed and other.

There is nothing quite like pouring liquid metal. And that reassuring weight of the solid cast objects.

For years I just lived off scrap metal from the nearby junkyard. Bake together aluminium from bikes, plumbing, and machine parts — you get an ignoble porridge resulting in wonky objects of questionable structural integrity.

While traditional type metal has a lower melting point and would be easier to work with, the ubiquity of aluminium and lighter weight makes it more practical for large letters.

After the defunct state-owned printing press auctioned off all remains, I found myself in possession of a cubic meters worth of discarded aluminium braces for typesetting. What a fitting reuse for those grimy black pieces of dented metal, I thought. An afterlife, a freedom from decades of steadfast service trapped in highly specialised rectilinear forms, now they would flow again, and be allowed to settle in a more spontaneous form.

Typeface: Light Metal Foundry
Designer: Niklas Ekholm
Year: 2023