Lisa Marie Bengtsson is interested in what happens when something is not completely decided in advance.

Her work often begins with something that already exists. A place with a particular use. An object with an expected function. A movement through a room. She looks closely at what is already happening and asks what else might be possible.

She works through making, testing and observing. Sketches, models, prototypes and full scale tests are part of how ideas develop. She often builds families of forms, objects and materials that relate to one another and shape a space. Colour, scale, repetition and contrast help hold these environments together. The forms can be very clear, while their use remains open.

Play is an important part of her practice. She sees it as a way of testing, changing, combining and seeing things differently. Rather than designing towards one fixed use or outcome, she often makes a first physical move and pays attention to what happens next. How a body approaches something. What a material suggests. What someone does that was not expected. These observations become part of the next decision.

She is drawn to forms that are clear but not completely fixed. Objects that can be used in more than one way. Spaces that allow different bodies, tempos and ways of participating. The work can have a strong form while still leaving room for someone else to affect what it becomes.

Working with children for many years has shaped this way of thinking. Children often meet spaces and objects through what they can actually do with them rather than what they are supposed to be for. They crawl under, carry, repeat, combine, turn things around and find possibilities that an adult eye may overlook. Lisa is interested in taking these discoveries seriously and allowing them to influence how the work develops.

Her process is often simple:

look
make
test
observe
change

She aims to create structures that can hold something open.