Talent Talks: Priss Niinikoski

With a background in Fashion and textiles design, Priss Niinikoski recently shifted her focus to three-dimensional textiles and space. NOoF commissioned Priss to explore the potential of floral waste, gathered from local flower shops in her hometown Helsinki.

Could you please introduce yourself?

I’m Priss Niinikoski, currently a Helsinki based artist and independent designer. My background is in Fashion and textiles design but I am currently working more in the field of art and research shifting my focus to three-dimensional textiles and space. I did a Masters degree in the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, worked at several fashion houses and was selected as a finalist for the 37th edition of the International festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories Hyères.

From there I decided to continue my education and I am currently finishing my second masters degree in Sculpture at the Uniarts Helsinki. It has been a great experience to look at textiles and materials from a much broader perspective.

How would you describe your practice?

I work very intuitively in the fields of sculpture, textiles and technology. My working method is trial and error and I often like to think through making and make through thinking. I think my practice is much related to some kind of futurism in a way, I would say that it involves imaging different futures and coexistence with our material surroundings.

I’m interested in researching technologies and knowledge exchange in their broader sense from low to high tech, from traditional ecological knowledge to contemporary open source communities. These are things that organically evolved and travel through time with verbal and social exchange. I’m interested in seeing the present and our culture as an assemblage of shards of the past, rather than being something completely new. It’s a recomposition and that’s how the future will be.

I’m very much interested in skills and the economy around it. I love YouTube craft communities and free education: open libraries and databases. For me the tangible part making with hands has been for a while quite important for my practice however I’m starting to look for ways to incorporate mechanics into the artisanal textiles methods I use.

NOoF commissioned you as a part of their Artistic Research programme. Could you tell us about your experience?

It has always been a pleasure to collaborate with NOoF! Last year I had the chance of having an Artistic Research residency where NOoF connected me with local craft and fiber practitioners. Through these encounters my mind was broadened up in the topic of textiles and fiber knowledge.

The Artistic Research programme has given me a valuable time and setting to develop my practice and research further with much freedom. I really appreciate how the programme has a strong affinity towards embodied knowledge. Through the programme I have learned to break out of the conventional classifications and have been sparked to see that textile thinking and fibers are everywhere in different fields and forms.

My artistic research project is a continuation from last year’s learnings which gave me a good push and foundation to look much further over disciplines. This year I wanted to find fibers from unexpected places and repurpose historic textiles knowledge to discover what could regenerative practice be in the future?

You were asked to develop work in relation to the theme of regeneration. How did you approach this topic?

For me, regeneration, in the context of design, involves practices that think about the aftermath and the effect of their actions. It’s about restoring rather sustaining and to me it comes through in careful gathering and utility of waste and materials.

I chose to work with flower waste to extract fibers from leftovers like the cutting waste and unsalable cut flowers which I gathered from flower shops. Through some experimentation I found that roses had the best qualities for non-chemical and manual fiber processing. I used the outer layer of the stems which I peeled several times to reveal a translucent layer with flexible nature for further processing. From the gathered fibers I twined by hand a thin cordage with some water to give more elasticity. For the processing I tried different tools but I found that a little bit blunt carving knife was well suited for the job. I wanted to use labour as the main element for the processing and I avoided adding anything extra to the fiber itself.

Could you tell us about your creative process?

My creative process is very eclectic and intuitive. I like to look for new things and path’s from archives, through walking and finding. It’s a lot about posing questions and finding answers for them. I like to allow myself to make mistakes, move on and learn from them.

I collect a lot of material from the archives, online and in the libraries, and then I go through the gathered things and look for connections. After that I like to experiment, I often make samples and start sketching. On the side I like to read texts to support conceptual thinking.

What were the most interesting results, the most important takeaways?

I think the most important takeaway is to try things even if it feels silly.I was walking by the coast and just started to twine some lime grass and turned out to hold together well. I might gather some for a future project. It is a lot about being open to discovering materials, learning different ways of processing and applying it boldly to your work.

Can you imagine developing the project further? And if so, how?

Absolutely, I am currently starting up a project with smart textiles which is a new field for me. I am thinking of combining technology with non-traditional fibers like in this case gathered natural fibers possibly. I would like to apply artisanal textiles and craftsmanship with building soft electronics and to think about their aesthetics from a creative perspective. Again finding a bridge between two different domains which can relate to each other

How do you envision the future of fashion and your role therein?

I think it will be hard for the industry to change when the fashion system is built in exclusivity and differentiation. I envision fashion to shift to more accessible and to embark on a culture of making.

Amazing things can be done in the field of haute-couture and garment making and with so much potential to have that all shared with the public. Some brands have been releasing patterns and instructions to make pieces from their collections, I wish to see more of it in the future. In general I hope less exclusivity and more openness for the industry.

I can’t yet pinpoint my role in it but I do know I want to progress to a Phd, focus on research and education. I would love to be able to work as a bridge between different fields and practitioners.

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