Soft pink sacks with a scrotum-like consistency lie abandoned on a table, surrounded by what may or may not be a long and hairy matter. If you move or emit a sound while wondering what these strange pinkish configurations could be, you will see the materials reacting and twisting.
These mysterious interactive skins move subtly, but, fear not, they weren't freshly cut from some kind of monster or alien creature, but they are Bart Hess' contribution to "Fringes of Beauty", an exhibition currently on at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, The Netherlands (until 7th May 2017).
This event tackles one dichotomy – attractive Vs repulsive – that lies at the bottom of quite a few disciplines, from science to fashion and design. The exhibition includes therefore five different installations and interactive sculptures that have a strong visual power, but also offer an intriguing physical experience (with the occasional sensation of discomfort).
Bart Hess' installation features silicone skins inspired by the soft pulse of testicles: the artist braided an enormous amount of cords creating the basic structure. The cords were then coated with silicon sections that reproduced sack-shaped formations.
Though the final installation looks rather disquieting from a visual point of view, there is actually a lot of technique behind it since Hess discovered new possibilities while working on the braiding sessions at the museum's TextielLab passementerie department.
Moving from their ethnographic collection, artists Heringa/Van Kalsbeek came up with a monumental piece entitled "Armor", inspired by the headpieces of traditional Chinese brides.
Such decorative accessories function like extremely elaborate tiaras and complement the traditional wedding attire in a lovely and regal way.
The artists' metal construction looks like a beautiful riot of colours and rich elements from a distance, but, once you look more closely, you realise it is made with laser-cut wings crudely coated in resin and pieces of metal dotted with bright red pompoms.
Besides, being massive, the piece is not destined to a happy bride to be, otherwise she would be crushed under its weight and imperfections, but it could be interpreted as a monumental armor to defend and protect oneself.
In much the same way, Tanja Smeets' installation deceives the eye: her clusters of grey flowers grow along walls and ceilings like moulds and mushrooms, creating an infinite landscape, at times giving the illusion these fleurs du mal were made of metallic materials.
In reality these pieces are assembled from both soft and hard materials. The sculptures were indeed made after the artist explored the possibilities of the laser and knitting techniques at the TextielLab.
Smeets cut irregular basic forms from industrial felt, working from very small to a larger scale, and then assembled them together. As the various elements intertwine and crawl in the middle, the material seems to explode like a dust-cloud.
Knitwear fans will discover that this installation includes another triffid-like plant with knitted buds rather than felt elements ("Soft Machine") made following the processes of aggregation and accumulation.
These same principles characterise also Karin van Dam's black sculptures forming the installation "The Polyp Form of the Red Eye Medusa 2".
These strange abstract satellites made by combining PVC and monofilament seem to be floating in space and, while they do look seductively beautiful, they are inspired by a very poisonous jellyfish – the Red Eye Medusa – they therefore hint at something apocalyptic and ominous floating in the room, crawling on the floor and maybe even contaminating the visitor.
Arriving in front of Nan Groot Antink's strips of fabrics, visitors may get the impression that the most disturbing installations were finally left behind. Antink's work, consisting in a series of fabric strips in a palette going from gold yellow and ochre to bronze displayed with glass vases containing herbs to make natural dyes, inspires indeed a sort of serene silence.
Since 1990 the artist has made her own dye from native and foreign plant dyes, but for this commission she selected eight plant dyes, based on the original vegetation of the museum's site, plus another unusual and surprising material - the urine of the male workers of the museum who every day handed in their morning urine to the artist.
Antink used urine for the dyeing process inspired by a story told by her grandmother: the textile workers from Tilburg used to walk through town with their jug of urine. In the past they used indeed the urine for the dyeing process at the textile factories.
"Attraction and Repulsion are the sole properties through which we perceive the Universe – in other words through which Matter is manifested to Mind – that, for all merely argumetative purposes, we are fully justified in assuming that matter exists only as attraction and repulsion – that attraction and repulsion are matter: – there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the term 'matter' and the terms 'attraction' and 'repulsion', taken together, as equivalent, and therefore convertible, expressions in Logic," Edgar Allan Poe wrote in his essay Eureka about his conception of the nature of the universe.
"Fringes of Beauty" may not tackle the attraction and repulsion principles from a scientific point of view, but, as a journey through them, it works pretty well since it seduces and grabs people's attention in an intriguing way.
Keen to discover more? Check out the eponymous volume by curator Suzan Rüsseler accompanying the exhibition and available from the TextielShop.
Image credits for this post
1, 2, 3.
"Veins1"
Artist: Bart Hess
Year: 2015-2016
Collection TextielMuseum / BK1214
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
4.
"Spine"
Artist: Bart Hess
Year: 2015-2016
Collection TextielMuseum / BK1216
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
5.
Bart Hess working in the TextielLab at the passementerie department.
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
6, 7, 8 and 9
"Armor"
Artists: Heringa/Van Kalsbeek
Year: 2015
Dimension: h220 x w231 x d65 cm Collection TextielMuseum / BK1187
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Tommy de Lange commissioned by TextielMuseum
10 – 11.
Overview exhibition "Fringes of Beauty", Tanja Smeets.
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
12.
"Nebula", detail
Artist: Tanja Smeets
Year: 2015
Dimension: hX x wX cm ø
Collection TextielMuseum / BK1190 Production:
TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Tommy de Lange commissioned by TextielMuseum
13.
"Soft Machine", detail
Artist: Tanja Smeets
Year: 2015
Collection TextielMuseum / BK1190
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Tommy de Lange commissioned by TextielMuseum
14.
Overview exhibition "Fringes of Beauty", Karin van Dam. Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
15.
"The Polyp form of the Red Eye Medusa 2"
Artist: Karin van Dam
Year: 2013/2016
Loan: Karin van Dam
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Tom Haartsen
16.
"Vezels, bindingen en verfplanten" (Fibers, Bindings and Dye Plants)
Artist: Nan Groot Antink
Year: 2015-2016
Dimension: h280 x w60 cm (per panel) Collection TextielMuseum / BK1197
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
17.
"Vezels, bindingen en verfplanten" (Fibers, Bindings and Dye Plants), birch
Artist: Nan Groot Antink
Year: 2015-2016
Dimension: h280 x w60 cm Collection TextielMuseum / BK1197
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
18.
"Vezels, bindingen en verfplanten" (Fibers, Bindings and Dye Plants), alder buckthorn
Artist: Nan Groot Antink
Year: 2015-2016
Dimension: h280 x w60 cm Collection TextielMuseum / BK1197
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
19.
"Vezels, bindingen en verfplanten' (Fibers, Bindings and Dye Plants), heather
Artist: Nan Groot Antink
Year: 2015-2016
Collection TextielMuseum / BK1197
Production: TextielLab/studio artist
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
20.
Overview exhibition "Fringes of Beauty", Bart Hess.
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Related articles
