Design School: Let us begin long ago – at the Riga Design and Art School. Why did you make this decision – to study in the environmental design department?
Ieva Lauriņa: I couldn’t decide between handcrafts, because I enjoyed and still enjoy creating delicate things, and environmental design, because this programme seemed to have the broadest scope. It’s the same today – I don’t want to pigeonhole myself, saying that I’m going to do this one thing forever.
DS: Has the Riga Design and Art School prepared you for design studies elsewhere in the world? What aspect has been the most positive, what has been lacking?
I. L.: My studies at the Riga Design and Art School gave me a good grounding in composition, academic drawing and painting, which are useful for my further creative development. At school I also learned how important it is to do everything carefully, even the smallest detail, and how important well-exhibited works are. The school did not give me a stimulus for creative or individual development, nor even a small insight into the processes of art and design in today’s world, which, I believe, is very important.
DS: What inspires you? How do you work?
I. L.: I am inspired by emotions, the life stories of crazy people – in a good sense – the music and stories of Laurie Anderson, light, touch – a whole host of everyday trivia. There are also other things that drive me: spite, determination, sometimes also competition.
I mainly work independently. Although I consider the discussion of ideas with other students and lecturers as an indivisible part of the learning process. At times I also work in a pair or in a small group. This spring, a very valuable and enriching experience has been to create the plan for my own personal exhibition layout and implementing it together with the German student Pia Niewohner. I think that real partners in a creative collaboration are incredibly valuable.
That which I do, I do because I can’t help doing it. The emotional content of the work is very important to me, which usually materialises in conceptual form. I value beautiful and comfortable things, although I am not interested in creating another table or chair in a world that is already full of stuff. Aesthetics and elite beauty on their own do not engage me. At the moment I am still appreciating the joys of being a student: in my eyes, a situation worthy of Alice in Wonderland – I can do whatever I want. That’s why I’m not working for the school, or the show, or the diploma. I am working for myself, because I can’t and don’t want to work in any other way.
DS: What do you like most about the work you do?
I. L.: I like that fact that it has no boundaries. I enjoy the process of maturation of an intellectual idea, and the materialisation of a work. I like and think it is important to listen to opinions of my work from viewers/users, to see that that which I do is appreciated by someone else and that it can change something, if no more than at least making someone smile on a rainy Monday morning.
DS: What do you think is important in life?
I. L.: For me, honesty and a feeling of responsibility is important – in both relationships and creative work, an ability to divide the important from the less important; also doubt, to search myself, instead of just using ready-made opinions. Expressed simply – to think.
DS: Has University in Strasbourg met your expectations? What do you like, and what would you like to change?
I. L.: It has met my expectations. There are many wonderful lecturers and employees who are professional and do their work with enthusiasm, wide technical opportunities and a large library collection, an opportunity to work in various departments and workshops simultaneously, to make my own choice in the truly broad selection of lecturers available. I enjoy the environment of multinational students and lecturers, and the generally democratic, friendly relations between lecturers and students. I also value the fact that you don’t have to make a choice about professional direction straight away, when you enter the University. The negatives: in my opinion the design department is very artistic and ‘French’ oriented, and that at ten at night and on weekends the doors of the University are closed.
DS: Who are your fellow students?
I. L.: They are aged around 23 and 30, and specifically in my workshop, they are from Germany, Luxembourg, China and Korea. The French have come from all corners of their country. Students from Strasbourg itself make up less than 5%.
DS: Do you take part in competitions and exhibitions?
I. L.: Up until now I have taken part in group exhibitions in Strasbourg, Paris and Ribeauville, Riga and Ludza. I have created works for competitions held by Latvian, French, Italian and Japanese companies and organisations. In March this year I held an exhibition in the University gallery – (a concept store) 2c or not 2c. Last year I won second place in a design competition organised by Italian leather haberdashery company Lineapelle with my ornament Chain me softly, a five-metre long leather chain. In 2004 I won the Grand Prix in a competition for a creative use of paper organised by the company MAP and the Latvian Academy of Art for a work I created along with Reinis Hofmanis and Sanda Undzéna.
DS: How do you imagine your creative life in a year’s time and in ten years’ time? What would you like to achieve?
I. L.: In the next year I want to see what and how things happen in the real world. I think the time has come, otherwise I spend all my time in an environment cut off from reality. I am planning to work and/or complete an internship in the field of design. In five years I will have received my master’s diploma and will have established a creative society with people working in different fields from all over the world. I would like to work with new technologies which are still being developed and are environmentally friendly, including recycled materials.