This is a video of the making of Kaarina Kaikkonen’s Are We Still Afloat? currently up for the Nordic Cool 2013 festival at the Kennedy Center.

The piece is two parts of a boat, with the center missing, creating a sort of liminal space for you to walk through… Are you in the boat? Is the boat still afloat?

I’m posting it here because it’s a reminder of how you don’t have to look far for your inspiration, as this was made from 1000 dress shirts collected from DC residents. The shirts we see on people dozens of times a day. And look how they are arranged and how magical they become.

Like stitches, many become one, the banal becomes exceptional, pieces are stronger by the addition of others. Simple in its idea, yet masterly crafted, this piece and Kaikkonen’s reason for making it, blend the personal and the everyday. All because a shirt covers the heart. Simple. Beautiful. Lovely.