Non Toxic Saw Table
I have been using a Festool MFT table for quite some time, and it works great for sawing using a plunge saw with a guide rail. The accuracy is amazing and is equivalent to a large sliding table saw. The drawback of the MFT tops is that they are made of MDF, which contains the toxic substance formaldehyde, which is released both through the dust and in the form of gas.
I finally was able to create a new MFT saw table using the Parf Guide System, which enables the holes to be drilled in exact positions. Instead of a toxic MDF board, I used a board made of pine
Venice Biennale
The last stop of the Grand Tour was the Venice Biennale, where I spent two days looking at the exhibitions. Spanning from Ei Arakawa-Nash’s Grass Babies, Moon Babies to Alfredo Jaar’s The End of the World, where cobalt, rare earths, copper, tin, nickel, lithium, manganese, coltan, germanium, and platinum are pressed into a four-centimetre-square cube displayed in a temple-like room bathed in red illumination.
Visiting Venice, it’s hard not to notice the sea creeping up on streets and buildings, and the water pouring up from the drains at Piazza San Marco. For how much longer will the city — one of the birthplaces of many of our modern practices, like the banking system — withstand the pressures of climate change?
Grand Tour
Museo Nazionale Romano, Terme di Diocleziano
End of April I left Stockholm by train for a Grand Tour of Italy. The itinerary of the excursion was Florence, Rome, Tivoli, Pompeii, and finishing in Venice. The main focus was to visit museums and the many gardens in Italy. Tivoli was an interesting surprise, one of the first places of Grand Tour pilgrimage and later tourism, later forgotten due to industrialization and the following destruction during the Second World War.
Milling an Oak Tree
I was given an oak tree that had been cut down to make room for a new house.
After doing some research, I decided not to mill the wood into lumber myself. Instead, I found Anders, who operates a mobile sawmill. Conveniently, he was based in Dalarö, south of Stockholm, not far from where the oak tree had been cut down. The lumber now needs to dry for at least a year; then I can use it to make frames for my photographs.
Sickla strand 59
Sune Sundahl´s studio at Sickla stand 59.
I have moved out of the studio at Sickla strand 59 in Nacka, where I had worked since 2001. Since 2020, I shared the space with my wife, the artist Magali Cunico. One of the last projects conceived in the studio was for Magali’s video piece “Splittra.”
Before I moved in, the studio was occupied by the architectural photographer Sune Sundahl, and images from the studio can be found in the ArkDes Digital Museum.
Magali Cunico at the studio, Sickla strand 59.
Erik Hagman at the studio, Sickla strand 59.
