Iconic interior pieces by Dutch designers, such as Tejo Remy's "Rag Chair" (1991) or Marcel Wanders' "Knotted Chair" (1995), entered the imagination of many design fair visitors in te '90s, but also became integral partd of important museum collections for their conceptual power, humour and use of materials.
"Switch | Dutch Design on the move 1990-2015" at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg offers the chance to admire these pieces in a wider context since it covers 25 years of Dutch Design. The majority of the designers featured in "Switch" have actually collaborated with the museum on household textiles for the "by TextielMuseum" label.
The event is divided in four sections – "Sustainability", "Craftsmanship & Innovation", "Poetry & Stories" and "Design-based Research" – and includes very different pieces, from textile products and furniture to conceptual installations.
As seen in a previous post about Milan Design Week, sustainability is a key issue in many fields at the moment and rediscovering Remy's "Rag Chair", a structure incorporating recycled textiles, Remy and René Veenhuizen's "Accidental Carpets" made with old blankets reduced in strips forming colourful abstract landscapes, or Atelier NL's "The Yarn Machine", a project focusing on how biodegradable yarn can be manufactured from beans and potatoes, will definitely inspire visitors and design/fashion students to think laterally in their practices and create innovative techniques and products.
"Craftsmanship & Innovation" looks at the research into materials and techniques carried out by many Dutch designers: the pieces included here go from the collaboration between textile designer Christie van der Haak and product designer Piet Hein Eek that resulted in the colourfully joyful modular wooden "Damsel Bench" covered with 25 metres of woven upholstery, to Wanders' "Knotted Chair".
Though made adapting the traditional macramé knotting technique, the chair boasts a high tech connection: created with the faculty of aviation at Delft Technical University, the chair incorporates indeed cords composed of aramid fibers (a strong and lightweight heat-resistant material commonly used in aerospace) twisted around a carbon core.
Hella Jongerius's "Kasese Sheep Chair", a folding chair mainly made from carbon-reinforced plastic, integrates a seat of felted sheep's wool, produced by Claudy Jongstra, a designer who has taken the concept of sustainability and the manufacturing cycle to another level since she mainly works on architectural felt installations with wool produced by her own flock of heritage sheep, using vegetable dyes extracted from her own orchard.
The "Poetry & Stories" section includes designers such as Ineke Hans, Wieki Somers and Kiki van Eijk. The latter's "Kiki Carpet" is characterised by what looks like an enlarged embroidery section and was inspired by the décor of 19th-century dollhouses.
Studio Job's "Labyrinth" carpets feature instead a mesmerising green-and-white maze pattern that the design duo applied to various iconic pieces created by them throughout the years.
The "Design-based Research" area includes works with a clear, conceptual signature. There are actually also smaller pieces in this section such as Studio Makkink & Bey's "Daily Handkerchief" - 30 days of world news articles selected and embroidered on a handkerchief that can be carried around as a memento and an arty piece or can more simply be used as a functional accessory.
A very honourable mention goes to the "The Textured Self" (2011) by bio-artist and designer Sonja Bäumel, a skin-like representation of her body and the bacteria living on it. This hand-knitted and crocheted oversized body silhouette features coloured cotton, nylon and mohair threads forming the structure of the bacteria population living on various zones of her body on a specific day.
In this experiment the artist transformed an invisible microcosm into a visible and slightly disturbingly upsetting fabric that prompts visitors to look at the body as a hybrid and a super organism, while at the same time inviting them to consider the potential and power of textiles.
"Switch | Dutch Design on the move 1990-2015", TextielMuseum, Goirkestraat 96, Tilburg, until 12 March 2017.
Image credits for this post
Exhibition: Switch | Dutch Design on the Move
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
"Rag Chair" by Tejo Remy
1991
Material: Textile, wood, metal; Technique: assemblage
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
"Accidental Carpet" by Remy & Veenhuizen/Tanja Smeets
2005 – 2008
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Detail "Accidental Carpet" by Remy & Veenhuizen/Tanja Smeets
2005 – 2008
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
"Jufferbank" with fabric Sassandra by Piet Hein Eek / Christie van der Haak
2006/2007
Material: cotton, Trevira CS, oakwood polypropylene, metal; Technique: jacquard woven, carpentry, upholstered
Production: TextielMuseum, Piet Hein Eek
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
"Knotted Chair" by Marcel Wanders
1996
Material: aramide, carbon, epoxy resin; Technique: macramé, fixed
Production: Droog design
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
"TM 003", interior design fabric by Claudy Jongstra
2003
Material: cotton, wool; Technique: woven, felted
Production: Claudy Jongstra, TextielMuseum
Commissioner: TextielMuseum
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
"Kiki Carpet special" by Kiki van Eijk
2000/ 2005
Material: wool, latex, metal; Technique: felted, knotted
Production: Danish Carpets
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Kiki van Eijk
"Labyrinth" by Studio Job
2007- 2008
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
"Daily Handkerchief" by Studio Makkink & Bey
2010
Material: cotton, paper, metal, plastic; Technique: printed, embroidered; Commissioner: Droog design
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
"The Textured Self"/"Draft_ Bacteria Mapping" by Sonja Bäumel
2011
Material: nylon, mohair, cotton, abaca /cotton, paper, wood; Technique: braided, knitted / printed, glued
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Detail "The Textured Self" by Sonja Bäumel
2011
Material: nylon, mohair, cotton, abaca; Technique: braided, knitted; Production: Sonja Bäumel, TextielMuseum, Barbara Hrastnik
Commissioner: TextielMuseum
Collection TextielMuseum
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
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