Thickness: 8.5 mm
Diameter: 80 mm
Weight: 131 g
GOLD MEDAL
SILVER MEDAL
BRONZE MEDAL
Another important commission soon came her way. Medals were needed for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, and four artists were invited to participate in a closed competition for the design: Hanevold, Danuta Haremska, Christian Gaudernack and Morten Kleppan.
‘It was a fun commission to win because numerous criteria had to be met. Reading the list of criteria, I asked myself: with so little room for manoeuvre, what can I possibly do?’
When viewing the proposals from the four artists, Hanevold was surprised over how different they were:
‘Danuta Haremska had used a Viking ship as a basic form. Christian Gaudernack wanted to profile Norway and enamel, so he created medals with blue and white enamel and with a rock crystal affixed to the surface. The competition organisers wanted the medals to include a Norwegian stone, and when I read this, I thought: why not make the medals themselves out of stone?’
The pictograms and other visual elements were predetermined, also the text type and the information to be included on the various medals.
‘I thought the pictograms were very amusing and wanted to enlarge them. And then I could make twelve different types, one for each sporting genre, with the pictogram looming large on the stone. The pictograms looked like petroglyphs, so my idea was to use mountain rocks from the Lillehammer ski jump area. I combined it all with gold and it became my concept.’
Hanevold enlarged the visual elements and added the signature snow crystals at a diagonal across the stone. The Olympic rings she put on the reverse side, and the Lillehammer logo she reduced so that it would not be too domineering.
‘I didn’t think the Lillehammer logo was all that exciting so I stamped it in the field of snow crystals.’ She stresses that she did not work alone in creating the medals. ‘The graphics were already determined, so my job was to combine the elements, chose the materials and determine the overall form.’
She was surprised when her proposal won, describing it as her ’15 minutes of fame’. Nevertheless, she thinks the commission has had little impact on her career as a jewellery artist.
More informations: www.deesign.ch