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ABSTRACTS: Sölvi Dúnn x The Denim Carver jacket

The &SONS Abstracts series follows the journey of our clothing as it is reborn into unique, one-off pieces of art by the creatives who wear them. We delve into what inspires them and the reason they do what they do. We watch as our clothing takes on an entirely new personality as they paint, stitch and fabricate completely new garments using our clothes as the starting point.

SOLVI DUNN

We were introduced to Solvi a few months ago and he very kindly offered to take one of our Carver Denim jackets. The jacket is a hardwearing, washed black denim so we were really intrigued to see what he would come back with.

This is Solvi’s journey, in his own words…

Fulfilment through frustration

When I first heard from the &sons team we wanted this Abstracts project to focus on mindfulness and mental health. I decided to use this abstraction/customization of the Carver Jacket as an active attempt at being at ease in my own mind, an attempt to be mindful

By using (my very limited understanding of) the Zen concept of the Beginners Mind, I decided to turn my back on the techniques I am familiar with and try creating in a medium that I have never used before and without properly studying it beforehand.

I decided I would make a back patch using different textile techniques and when I felt comfortable with one technique I would move over to a new one. By keeping myself in a constant loop of learn-by-doing I had no other choice than to be in the moment, feeling and observing the medium rather than knowing and properly understanding it.

Inevitably mistakes were made along the way, but the process of correcting these mistakes proved to be the main source of fulfilment as I needed to overcome these obstacles however self-made they were. 


Continually creating and overcoming suitably difficult obstacles provided a feeling of accomplishment and fulfilment, that kept me going throughout the 70+ hours it took me to finish the quilted, embroidered, needle-felted and punch-stitched patches. The result consists of two patches. One depicts the struggle between the inner self and the outside world (snake and baby) the
other represents the aforementioned technique of feeling/experiencing
rather than knowing.

My name is Sölvi Dúnn Snæbjörnsson, I’m born and raised in Reykjavík - Iceland. I have a masters degree in “visual communication” from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen - Denmark.


I work as a tattoo artist at the Icelandic Tattoo Corp.
in Reykjavík.

I play guitar obsessively, cook and hang out with my dog and wife (two separate entities)  …and now apparently I also sew.

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