Specific colours or colour combinations do have special meanings, for example, yellow and black instantly alert our minds to an imminent danger. Then there are colours that also have metaphorical or symbolic meanings, such as black and white.
Actually black and white are not even physical colours as they do not have specific wavelengths, since white is pure light and black is the absence of light.
But when we think about them a series of dichotomies are instantly conjured up in our minds – from light vs shadow to the most radiant brightness vs the deepest darkness.
These two contrasts have inspired countless artists and designers as well, so it was only natural for the Tilburg-based TextielMuseum to organise an exhibition about them.
"Black & White: Symbolic Meaning in Art & Design" (until 1st march 2020) features works by several artists and designers included in the museum collection - among them Jorge Baldessari, Maria Roosen, Alet Pilon, Jeroen Eisinga, Marinus Boezem, Bart Hess, Célio Braga, Studio Formafantasma and Felieke van der Leest - each of them working with different materials and mediums.
The theme of the exhibition is analysed via different sections that explore the possibilities of opposites and the contrasts between innocence, purity and loyalty, and mystery, darkness and death.
The opposites section includes quite a few conceptual works such as Marinus Boezem and Anna Verwey-Verschuure's (check out her work "Dissolution", with a human silhouette made with unravelling fabric that hints at physical and psychological destruction), at times tackling the themes of identity, presence and absence.
In this part there is also the embroidered poem "Tools" (1994-95) by Argentinian artist Jorge Baldessari, in which he imagines a conversation, reproduced by two sewing machines, with the divine creator who expelled mankind from paradise.
In the more abstract works by Elke Lutgerink black and white appear as a continuum: Lutgerink's furry tapestry with its deep black centre seems to suck in visitors into an attractively scary black hole vaguely reminiscent of a vagina.
Purity, virginity and innocence are themes linked with births, baptisms and weddings, inspirations that find a playful and poetic expression in the ethereal glass and paper clouds by Regula Maria Müller and in the reimagined black and white photographs covered in pearls by Hinke Schreuders.
The black mittens and white socks jewellery by Felieke van der Leest call to mind female roles and maternity.
These themes are combined with eternity in religions in works such as Christian Bastiaans's "Madonna of Humility" (2003). The former consists in a delicate sculpture made of iron wire and gauze evoking the vulnerability of human existence.
This piece is juxtaposed to Alet Pilon's "Black Madonna" (2018), probably the most disquieting yet irresistibly fascinating piece in the exhibition that invites visitors to go beyond the mere semblance.
Despite her satanic appearance, this half human, half animal hairy sculpture with huge horns, wearing tough black gloves and boots, and with a holster slung around her waist, is tenderly holding her child in her arms in a lovely maternal pose.
Pilon has a passion for the surreal, as proved also by her white "ZT (Swan wings)" (1995), a sculptural work that can be worn around the shoulders and that seems to be inspired by the Swan Lake and the fate of the mythical Greek hero Icarus, pointing at cursed princesses and shattered dreams.
The exhibition then prompts visitors to consider differences in cultures and the way white is associated with death and mourning in African and Asian cultures (and in Medieval Europe), while in the West, black has symbolised mourning since the Renaissance.
Black and white mourning jewellery pieces by Miriam Verbeek help discovering these differences, but also encourage to leave them behind, and get inspired by combining different techniques and materials together in the same design (her metal and textile finger-gloves-cum-rings and her glass and fabric necklace are just some of the examples included in the event).
Death, mystery and the darker side of human nature are explored in Bart Hess' "Stimulus: cord reflexes, Subject B.M." (2016) and in the abstract objects from the Brancos and Negros series by Brazilian artist Célio Braga.
The former was inspired by the tactility of skin, and specifically by the movement of testicles; the latter are intense black or white shapes that refer to processes of death, mourning and transformation.
Visitors spending enough time to carefully analyse these objects and designs will go through a transformative process as well as they will definitely look at black and white in a different way after visiting this event.
The exhibition is highly recommended to all creative minds but in particular to jewellery designers, textile artists and costume and set designers looking for intriguing and experimental ideas for bold and visually strong creations.
Image credits for this post
Wish I had 1 (Swan-skirt) by Alet Pilon, 1997
Dimension: h80 x w120 x d80 cm
Photo: Cord Otting
Exhibition View "Black & White"
Works, from left to right: Karin van Dam – Traveling Cities anno 2014; Regula Maria Müller – Wolk 3/2 from Cloud studies in glass and paper; Hendrik Kerstens - Lampshade
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Rouwring / Ring for Mourning by Miriam Verbeek, 1993
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0432
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Glasketting / Glass collier by Miriam Verbeek, 1993
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0360
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Gereedschap / Tools by Jorge Baldessari, 1994-1995
Dimension: h111 x w145 x d35 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0479
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
The Madonna of Humility (Replacement Item for autopsy bodies in the Lear zone 1), from the serie Hurt Models by Christiaan Bastiaans, 2003
Dimension: h204 x w170 x d150 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0795
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Exhibition view "Black & White"
Works, from left to right: Henk Visch – Het bovenstaande; Alet Pilon – ZT (Swan Wings); Alet Pilon – Black Madonna; Christiaan Bastiaans – The Madonna of Humility
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Zwarte Ketting met de Zwarte Wantjes / Black Chain with Black Mittens by Felieke van der Leest, 1998
Dimension: l63 x w15 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0580
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Witte Ketting met de Witte Sokjes / White Chain with White Socks by Felieke van der Leest, 1998
Dimension: l63 x w15 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0579
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
hoker, from the serie Negros by Célio Braga, 2007
Dimension: h28 x w21 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0878
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
no title, from the serie Brancos by Célio Braga, 2003-2004
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1255a=c
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Dissolution 2 by Anna Verwey-Verschuure, 1979
Dimension: h185 x w43 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0370
Photo: Joep Vogels/TextielMuseum
ZT (Swan wings) by Alet Pilon, 1995
Dimension: h97 x w124 d40 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK0486
Photo: Alet Pilon
Traveling Cities anno 2014 by Karin van Dam, 1999-2014
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1100
Photo: Tom Haartsen
Colonna by Formafantasma, 2007
Dimension: h88,5 x w54,5 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1088a
Photo: Formafantasma
Wolk 3/2, from Wolkenstudies in glas en papier / Cloud 3.2, from Cloud studies in glass and paper by Maria Regula Müller, 2013-2014
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1519
Photo: Regula M. Müller
Works on paper #46 (Ostrich Feathers) by Hinke Schreuders, 2015
Dimension: h25 x w18,5 x d5,5 cm
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1182
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
STIMULUS: cord reflexes, Subject B.M. by Bart Hess, 2015-2016
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1215a=b
Photo: Josefina Eikenaar/TextielMuseum
Bellow by Elke Lutgerink, 2017
Collection TextielMuseum: BK1258
Photo: Fabian de Kloe
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