Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

Life as Art, Art as a Healing Process: "Sound Botanica" by Guadalupe Maravilla @ Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway

There is something curious, disturbing and bizarre in Guadalupe Maravilla's works. His freestanding sculptures entitled "Disease Throwers", for example, are assemblages of found objects - among them shells, ropes, bits and pieces of metal and parts of anatomical models - and materials surrounding a gong. They evoke tribal and primordial feelings and look a bit scary like mysterious monsters, but they also seem to bring with them a healing message, that becomes clearer when you read the artist's biography.

Born in 1976 in El Salvador, Maravilla was brought to the US by a coyote (or human trafficker) in 1984 as an undocumented, unaccompanied child, fleeing civil war in El Salvador. He was therefore part of the first wave of undocumented children to come to the U.S. from Central America. 

Maravilla became a U.S. citizen at 27 and, in 2016, to honour his undocumented father, who uses Maravilla as his last name, the artist changed his birth name from Irvin Morazan to Guadalupe Maravilla. Diagnosed with colon cancer as an adult, Maravilla was treated with radiation and chemotherapy alongside healing practices and became cancer free.

Maravilla is currently Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, having received his MFA from Hunter College and his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Living and working in Brooklyn, New York, the artist creates interdisciplinary works hinting at his experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing. 

The materials incorporated in his "Disease Throwers" were collected while the artist retraced his migration journey and the sound element in these sculptures hints at a collective ritual, a meditative healing experience created by the artist.

The sculptures will be on display in January at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway, as part of "Sound Botanica " (14th January - 30th April 2022), Maravilla's first solo exhibition in Europe.

The word "Botanica" in the title refers to a small store that sells herbal and other traditional remedies, together with charms, incense, candles, and other items used for religious or spiritual purposes.

The exhibition brings indeed together different inspirations and series of works: apart from his "Disease Throwers" there are also works from his series entitled "Tripa Chuca", "Embroideries" and "Retablos".

"Tripa Chuca" (Dirty Guts) references a Salvadorian game that Maravilla played during his childhood and along his migration route. The drawings included in these works look at migration in general and at the personal history of the artist.

The "Embroideries" series features instead embroidered elements, disembodied limbs, hands, and clenched fists, stitched with dripping blocks of ice (a reference to ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), skulls and a hand sowing seeds. These contemporary emblems were created by the artist to symbolise resistance against the persecution of and political pressure on undocumented immigrants. 

The "Retablos" are devotional "ex-voto" paintings, a popular art form traditionally used to express gratitude for surviving dangerous events. In Maravilla's retablos, and in the long inscriptions on each of them, the artist gives thanks and expresses gratitude for, among other things, a new chance in life after his cancer treatment, which made it possible for him to continue as an artist and healer.

"Sound Botanica" is part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme 2021: Maravilla is the second artist to receive the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, presented bi-annually and intended to mark a significant milestone in an artist's career.

Inaugurated in 2019 with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient, the award presents 100,000 USD in prize money to a distinguished artist whose work will inspire and motivate future generations to active participation and social responsibility.

The award jury stated about the artist: "Guadalupe Maravilla's life is also his work (...) The artist's interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to these experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing, identity and displacement. Yet Maravilla's work is also far more than his life. Building on personal narratives but venturing far afield into pre-Columbian mythologies, collective memory, geopolitical history, and material culture, the artist constructs artworks that act. His sculptures and elaborate constructions are also performative tools; he collaborates with others to create interactive wall drawings; he has choreographed a motorcycle gang chorus,and crossed the Rio Grande using one of his artworks as a flotation device."

The artist's focus on society and key social issues remains a key aspect of Maravilla's practice: during the Coronavirus pandemic in New York last year, Maravilla organised mutual aid work across the city supporting undocumented and immigrant communities with food and money, his ongoing commitment to immigrants.

Image credits for this post

1 - 4. Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #6, 2019. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla andP·P·O·W, New York.

5 and 6. Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

7 and 8. Guadalupe Maravilla, Requiem for a border crossing #1, 2016-2020. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York

9. and 10. Guadalupe Maravilla, Requiem for a border crossing #4, 2016–2020. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York

11 and 12. Guadalupe Maravilla, EXVOTO Kambo Retablo, 2021.Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York

13 and 14. Guadalupe Maravilla, I want to thank the cucumbers Retablo, 2021. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York

15. Portrait of the artist. Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

Fashion Obituary: Fashion Designer & Post-Modern Disruptor Virgil Abloh (1980-2021)

The fashion industry is in mourning after it was announced that Virgil Abloh, 41, founder of Off-White and Men's Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, died on Sunday from a rare and aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma. Messages started pouring in on social media from fans, fashion houses and designers, all of them left in disbelief by the tragic news.

A post on Abloh's Instagram account read: "We are devastated to announce the passing of our beloved Virgil Abloh, a fiercely devoted father, husband, son, brother, and friend (...) For over two years, Virgil valiantly battled a rare, aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma. He chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture.

Through it all, his work ethic, infinite curiosity, and optimism never wavered. Virgil was driven by his dedication to his craft and to his mission to open doors for others and create pathways for greater equality in art and design." Born in Rockford, Illinois, in 1980, from parents who emigrated to the United States from Ghana, Virgil Abloh developed his interest in fashion when he became passionate about skateboarding, but actually studied Civil Engineering and Architecture.

He became Kanye West's Creative Director in 2002, designing the rapper's album covers (for Kanye West and Jay-Z's joint album "Watch the Throne", as well as West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", among others) and merchandise as well. 

From 2009 Abloh focused more on fashion, attending the Paris fashion shows, and joining Kanye West for a one month internship at the Fendi headquarters in Rome. In 2012 Abloh launched his sporty/streetwear project Pyrex Vision (now defunct), starting by printing the name of the brand on Ralph Lauren shirts.

At the end of 2013, he moved onto Off-White (owned by the Milan-based NGG-New Guards Group that produced and distributed Marcelo Burlon County of Milan and Palm Angels, among the other brands; the group was bought by Farfetch in 2019). 

While at Off-White, Abloh applied for federal trademark protection for a generic logo characterised by black and white thick diagonal stripes, put words in Helvetica in quotation marks ("Sculpture" on a bag or "For Walking", on boots, for example) and launched a series of collaborations with Nike, Ikea, Sunglass Hut and German luggage maker Rimowa, just to mention a few ones. 

With Off-White Abloh followed rather unorthodox processes: in genuine post-modern style he borrowed from different places (a practice he continued in more recent years at Louis Vuitton), often without mentioning the source (sueing those who in turn copied Off White).

Off-White's logo, showing two arrows criss-crossing (a motif often accompanied by stripes), was lifted from the logo designed by Kinnear Calvert & Associates for Glasgow Airport in the '60s, while the graphic design on one of the brand's T-shirts echoed Lucio Fontana and its collections featured references to previous Dior and Prada designs or to Lady D's wardrobe.  

Abloh also entered the art world thanks to a project at the Gagosian Gallery in London with previous Louis Vuitton collaborator Takashi Murakami, and with the 2019 "Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, recently relaunched in Doha, Qatar. 

In 2017, at the Florence menswear show Pitti Uomo, Abloh also collaborated with artist Jenny Holzer on a piece that focused on the immigrant crisis, a social issue that became dear to his heart as proved by the uniforms the designer created in the same year for Melting Passes, a team of recently immigrated soccer players in Paris whose lack of residency status meant they were excluded from playing in official competitions.

In 2018 Abloh was championed by Kim Jones to take over the job of Menswear Creative Director at Louis Vuitton. Abloh shared the news with his Instagram followers at the time by posting a picture of a LV trunk. 

Abloh became the first African-American to lead a Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy-owned brand and a 164-year-old French luxury house. 

In the last few years he focused more on social projects: in August 2020 he launched his Post-Modern Scholarship Fund as a progressive response to Black Lives Matter, and has since worked to raise funds and support for Black-owned businesses.

In July 2021 LVMH announced that he would consult for the conglomerate at an executive level. 

Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, that owns Louis Vuitton and a 60 percent stake in Off-White, said in a statement: "Virgil was not only a genius designer and a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and a great wisdom." 

In our times health has become the ultimate luxury and treasure as we all suffer from some kind of mental or physical illness. Maybe Abloh's death should inspire some of the most powerful fashion conglomerates to support scientific and medical research through special funds and scholarships. 

Virgil Abloh is survived by his wife Shannon, and children Lowe and Grey, as well as his parents Nee and Eunice and sister Edwina. Louis Vuitton's Miami show scheduled for tomorrow and featuring Abloh's S/S 22 menwear collection will go ahead as planned. 

Inspiration on a String: Frank Paris' Marionettes

Marionettes have always been a great fashion inspiration, so let's look today at very intriguing ones by a master puppet maker, craftsman Frank Paris.

Marionettes and puppets inspired him from a young age and at 13 he used to organise backyard shows for kids. When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, he studied acting while working as a chauffeur and grocery bagger and, later on, used his training to put on puppet shows for children at Bullock's department store in downtown Los Angeles and also toured with the Olvera (Street) Puppeteers.

He went on to perform in New York's Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall and in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Bowl and the showroom of the Ambassador Hotel. Paris became more famous for creating the original Howdy Doody marionette for NBC's television program Puppet Playhouse in 1947 (taken off the air after six months when he got involved in a contract dispute with NBC). He moved to Hollywood in the 1960s and worked with Sid and Marty Krofft's Les Poupees de Paris, an elaborate puppet show performed on tour and at the 1964 World's Fair.

A genuinely remarkable artist, Paris created pieces inspired by a unique Art Deco style, some of them also part of important museum collections. He made gorgeous marionettes of actresses including Carmen Miranda and Mae West. Both were extremely elaborate: Carmen Miranda's puppet was 3 -foot-high and boasted a satin skirt outfitted with 4,000 sequins, while Mae West's was dressed in a black & silver sequined gown ending in an abundance of ostrich feathers, with layers of crinoline underneath. The details were extraordinary and both the marionettes were accessorised with multiple jewels. 

Paris' creations appeared in films and on television, and some are included in collections at the Smithsonian Institution and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Detroit Institute of Arts preserves three of his marionettes, all from 1937, representing American-born French entertainer Josephine Baker, Norwegian ice skater Sonja Henie and a skeleton. Both Baker and Henie's marionettes are dressed in beautiful costumes with feather elements and sparkling sequins, while the skeleton wears a fuchsia hat with matching gloves and high-heeled shoes. Paris always paid attention to makeup and the skeleton has rosy cheeks, mascaraed eyelashes and a tiny heart on the right cheek. The lesson to take away from Frank Paris' marionettes? Attention to detail is paramount and that's valid not only for fashion, but for all kinds of disciplines.

Sew-It-Yourself: Flowertwist 'Hex' Bag by Roberts | Wood

Looking for a cool DIY project for yourself or for an innovative Christmas present for a friend who's into fashion? Check out the sewing kits on the Pattern Project site. 

The South London micro-factory manufactures and sells ready-to-wear clothing (including tops, dresses and biodegradable briefs) produced locally and "Sew-It-Yourself Kits". 

Each kit includes all the necessary materials to make a garment, but the most original kit available at the moment is the one for the Flowertwist 'Hex' bag by Roberts | Wood.

Founded by Katie Roberts-Wood following her graduation from the Royal College of Art, Roberts | Wood is a design studio with an innovative approach to textiles and construction and a focus on sustainable, flexible production methods. The studio produces limited-edition hand-crafted pieces, and specialises in coming up with alternative solutions in garment construction.

The bag (measuring approximately 48cm in diameter) is an example of the studio's passion for innovative solutions: it represents a sculptural, oversized twisted flower, inspired by patterns and structures in nature.

The kit enables makers to create in 4 to 6 hours (if you're an intermediate sewist) he designer piece at home, with 8 easy-to-follow stages: the kit contains 17 x fabric pattern pieces (the bag is available in green or black) with instructions etched onto the fabric, cotton thread, a Roberts I Wood label and dust cover, an instruction booklet and access to a special masterclass sew-along video with the designer.

The pre-cut fabric pieces, etched construction lines and reference numbers make the process straight-forward, providing a simplified way of tackling an otherwise complex construction.

All the kits and clothes by the Pattern Project are made on order, to ensure there's no wasted fabric and no excess inventory. Enjoy your "Sew-It-Yourself" session!

Hanji Paper Abstractions

We have looked at the potential of 'Hanji' - that is traditional Korean handmade paper made from the inner bark of Broussonetia papyrifera, colloquially known as paper mulberry - combined with cotton in a previous post that featured Hanji paper bags. 

If you like this material, but prefer art pieces rather than accessories, check out the current assortment of Hanji panel abstractions currently available from the Tatami Antiques site.

As you may remember from previous posts, this independent online marketplace for Japanese antiquities often offers intriguing textile pieces and ideas for fashion designers, including patterns, kimonos and mini-kimonos for dolls (the item is sold by kikue, a seller specialised in Korean antiquities). 

The panels (sizes vary as the black ones are larger, around 25 x 25 cm; while the white tiles are smaller, around 20 x 20 cm) are made of compressed Hanji and come in black or white. It is worthwhile remembering here that the black colour is obtained by dyeing the handmade paper with charcoal.

The texture is extremely interesting as their surface is irregular and rough: the white tiles look a bit like large rice crackers and they are also thinner than the chunkier black panels. 

The black tiles were made at the studio of Jang Yong-hoon, operated by an artisan of South Korean Intangible Cultural Property; the white panels were made by Park Sung-man, one of leading Hanji artisans with more than 50 years experience in the field.  

The Artist & The Dream of the Quilt: Basil Kincaid's "The Rolling Fields to My House" @ Galleria Poggiali, Milan

Art can be used to tell a story and Basil Kincaid does so through works often made using textiles. By painting with fabrics and threads, he creates quilted tapestries, three-dimensional sculptural pieces and embroidered canvases that talk to gallery and museum visitors, developing a narrative about the artist's own personal and cultural identity within the African diaspora, filtered through the superstructures of his American experience.

Born in 1986 in St. Louis, Missouri, Kincaid studied drawing and painting at Colorado College, graduating in 2010. He has exhibited in various galleries in America and his work entered the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He was also among the artists selected by Yinka Shonibare for the 2021 summer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London entitled "Reclaiming Magic".

In his first Italian solo show at the Milanese branch of Galleria Poggiali, entitled "The Rolling Fields to My House", Kincaid is exhibiting (until 23rd December 2021) collages, photographs and installations. The most striking pieces remain his quilted works made using found, salvaged or donated materials. At times, he also incorporates in his self-portrait quilts, cut and stitched scraps of his own clothes. 

This is a way to tell a story within a story as some of the recycled materials the artist employs may have great emotional significance for those who once enjoyed them.

Through his dramatic and colorful quilts, Kincaid questions social practices, ponders about his story and highlights the importance of freeing the imagination and liberating the spirit.

The black figure that often appears in his quilts is a symbol for the artist himself, almost a witness exploring the polychromatic nature of the black diaspora identity. In some of his quilts - symbolically made with old choir robes from a church in St. Louis - the artist also examines religious themes pondering how Christianity services and disservices Black people, by acting as a vehicle of liberation and of shame as well.Yet for Kincaid quilting remains first and foremost a way to pay homage to his culture and family: in the black cultural tradition, quilting has always served as a revolutionary space of joy, courage and community in direct contrast to social and financial subjugation.

Think for example about the quilts of Alabama-based all-black community Gee's Bend, that provided important African-American visual and cultural contributions to the history of art within the United States. Besides, slaves would make quilts for themselves and their owners: in the children's story "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" (1989) by Deborah Hopkinson, slaves used quilts as a means to share and transmit secret messages to escape slavery and travel the Underground Railroad.  In the case of Kincaid, the practice of quilting has also got a long history in his family and it was handed down over 7 generations, but he had never expressed himself through this medium until he had a dream five years ago, upon returning from a residency in Ghana.

He dreamt of his grandmother Eugenia Kincaid standing in front of a two-story red brick house in St. Louis. Behind her the house was wrapped in a quilt while a golden energy flowed out of her body. Feeling as if he had been hit by her energetic aura, the artist woke up and knew he had to start making quilts.  With no experience he started collecting bits and pieces of fabrics, taught himself the essentials of the craft and embroidery as well, and set out on a completely new aesthetic and creative path that turned into a way to pay homage to the women in his family who were never regarded as artists.

As Kincaid states in a press release for his Italian exhibition: "It's a way of honouring my predecessors while addressing the questions and concerns of where I am, where we are, today. It's a way to restore and reconstruct with the resourcefulness innate within us."

Imaginative Juxtapositions: Kimonos & Art

Can fashion be art? This is one of those questions destined to remain unanswered that keep on coming back and appearing in interviews with designers and critics.

Some people do think that fashion can be inspired by art and it is an art in itself; others can only see the commercial side of this industry and therefore can't appreciate its arty side.

Sotheby's has currently got a wide range of kimonos as part of its Textiles & Clothing section that will convince even the most stubborn among us to finally accept that, yes, fashion (and in this specific case traditional garments and textiles) can be art.Each of the kimonos on offer (prices go from $700) is indeed compared to the prints, motifs, colours and elements of specific art movements or to painting by famous artists.

Most of the designs on offer are silk kimonos or men's jackets from the first quarter of the 20th century, while inspirations vary from movements such as Art Deco to Picasso.

Art Deco kimonos are perfect examples of what happened to this style when it arrived in Japan and encountered the local culture.

Traditional designs were fused with contemporary Western motifs and designers started integrating in kimonos architectural surfaces and patterns.

The Art Deco inspired kimonos in Sotheby's auction include kimonos with stylized patterns and designs with the iconic zigzag geometries of Art Deco.

One kimono in bold and bright colours seems to recreate in its pattern the Art Deco detail used in the most design-forward buildings of the era, The Sinclair Building designed by architect Wiley G. Clarkson in Fort Worth, TX, in 1930.

The best thing about these selection of kimonos and jackets is the way Sotheby's made the various comparisons - in this way each kimono is an art discovery.

A women's silk kimonos in more than fifty shades of blue evokes Paul Klee and in particular his painting "Incipient Coolness" (1937); a men's jacket in soft pastel shades and abstract motifs, hints at Joan Miró's painting "Hirondelle Amour" (1933-34).

A women's silk kimono seem to feature the same deconstructed planes (close ups of the kimonos will be a joy for textile fans - View this photo) of Picasso's "Girl with a Mandolin" (1910) and, for those who like Cubism there's also a men's silk jacket with a wonderful three-dimensionality about it. Made with the Meisen technique, the jacket holds striking similarities with Georges Braque's painting "Cafe Bar" (1919, View this photo) and with the design of the carpet in New York's entertainment venue Radio City Music Hall designed in 1932 by Ruth Reeves.

If you can't buy these pieces, do not despair: you can still use the images to fill your eyes with beauty (and who doesn't need that...) and inspirations.

Besides, you can also use the auction as a fashion / textile / art exercise to help you learning how to make comparisons, juxtaposing colours, patterns, shapes and techniques and discoverin in this way unusual correspondences between different disciplines. 

Natural Waves, Anticlastic Gridshells: The Arc at Green School by Ibuku

Draping is not easy in fashion, but it is even more difficult in architecture. After all, when you create draped motifs with fabrics you are playing with a soft and pliable material, but, doing that in architecture and obtaining the illusion of creating smooth draped curves, is challenging. Yet Ibuku, a team of young designers, architects and engineers headed by Creative Director Elora Hardy (who also worked in fashion, designing prints for Donna Karan) and known for its innovative structures, managed to do so using a natural material, bamboo.

The Arc at Green School is a 760-square-metre lightweight structure in Kecamatan Abiansemal, Indonesia, the latest building on campus at the school (a concept initiated by John and Cynthia Hardy in 2006, while Green School Bali opened in 2008).

Green School is known for breaking boundaries in sustainable education and educating children from the early years through to secondary education and the Arc is designed as a community wellness space and gymnasium for the school campus.

Considered as unprecedented for its shape and the main material employed, The Arc is an innovative design solution, never executed before.

It is indeed made with a series of intersecting 14 metre-tall bamboo arches spanning 19 meters, interconnected by anticlastic gridshells deriving their strength from curving in two opposite directions, as explained by Ibuku.

The team developed the design in collaboration with German carpentry specialist Jörg Stamm, UK-based structural engineering firm Atelier One and construction company PT Bamboo Pure.

The Arc was the result of months of researches to fine tune these details and draped technique, but the result is striking.

The arches and the gridshell allowed the designers to give the impression the roof was literally "draped" over the arches, from a distance it looks indeed as if the structure were covered by a soft material like a light sheet of fabric.

The main inspiration came from nature and anatomy as well: the principle behind the building - creating ample spaces with minimal structure - can indeed be found in the human body.

In our ribcage, as Stamm highlights, a series of ribs working in compression are held in place and stabilized by a tensioned flexible layer of muscle and tendons; this creates a thin but strong encasement for the lungs.

In this case the arches are held in place by the tensioned anticlastic gridshells that act as tensile tendons. But, while tensile membranes transfer forces from bone to bone, in this case the forces are transferred from arch to arch.

In this way the anticlastic gridshells, that appear to hang from the arches but actually hold them up, give the structure a beautiful dynamism, holding the thin arches and forming waves, while providing buckling resistance to the parabolic arches.

The arches and the anticlastic gridshells result in a unique structure, in which the weight is redistributed, the inner volume presents a very thin structure and less structural material is also employed.

Visually striking with its undulating bamboo roof, the massive structure is still light (bamboo is hard as rock and strong as lumber, but bamboo culms are hollow on the inside) and flexible yet sturdy as the arches and the anticlastic gridshells give balance to the building, and the strength of the structure stands in the curving surfaces.

The building confirms that the future definitely stands in rediscovering traditional techniques and natural materials and combining them with new technologies to produce striking eco-friendly designs.

The Arc is completely integrated in its surrounding fields, and allows the children using it to seamlessly move from the gym to the playing fields.

Bamboo architecture is obviously not new and it is currently being rediscovered by quite a few architectural studios, but Ibuku have so far developed several innovative structures employing this durable and malleable material in unusual ways. Promoting organic architecture and ecological responsibility, the team offers new solutions by using this zero-carbon material.

This pioneering structure, that won the "Iconic Building" category at the 2021 Global Architecture Design Awards, can definitely inspire fashion designers as well. The arches and the anticlastic gridshells can probably be reinvented by accessory designers or, even better, by jewelry designers to create unique architectural pieces based on the same principles of this building.

Images credits for this post

Photographs of The Arc by Tommaso Riva

Tufting Against the Patriarchy: Sam Druant's Feminist Tapestries

When we think about tufted designs, our mind immediately conjures up super-soft decorative rugs and tapestries maybe characterised by abstract motifs and by a special tactile quality about them. Yet, while Sam Druant's tufted tapestries are definitely soft, the themes they tackle are extremely profound. This year she created, for example, a tapestry entitled "A Walk in the Park".

Now if you look at it on your computer screen and you can just see the top part of the image with tree branches reaching out and touching each other with the moon in the background, you may think this is just a tapestry about a nocturnal walk in a park.

But, scroll down, and you will discover something deeply disturbing, a pair of legs in high heeled boots and a pool of blood. The walk in the park suddenly turns into a reference to femicides and women killed in parks by strangers who seems to be seldomly caught.

Druant has a background in illustration and combines it with various textile techniques, such as tufting, weaving, knitting and embroidery, to explore gender roles in Western culture and the sexism confronted by women on a daily basis, offering in this way a feminist critique.

One of the most recent piece she made is the "Bite Me" carpet - the design won her the Henry van de Velde Award in the Crafts category.

The "Bite Me" carpet combines textiles, artisanal work and soft materials. In the tapestry Druant includes Biblical references, myths and fairy tales, filtering them through the obsessions, passions and language of our contemporary society.

The slogans "Fuk U & UR White Horse", "Bite Me Bitch" and "Winner Winner, Pay 4 Dinner" in the tapestry invite viewers to start a conversation about how women are perceived, about the male gaze and binary hierarchical oppositions.

The textile medium to tackle such a theme is an obvious choice as crafts have been traditionally and historically considered as women's pastimes. Yet Druant mainly focuses on tufting and to make her pieces she uses a tool - a tufting gun - that you hold like a real machine gun.

Through this physical juxtaposition and through her tapestries, Druant explores the contradictions of our modern society, wondering why they still exist. There's also a sustainable twist to her work as the textile artist tries to get her materials from second-hand shops or from the deadstock of textile manufacturers.

Druant is one of the three winners of the Crafts category, but we will find out who will be taking home the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards per category during the presentation of the Henry van de Velde Awards on 8th February at Bozar, in Brussels, Belgium. 

In the meantime, we can all help determine which entry wins the Public Gold Award by voting online at henryvandevelde.be from today till 23rd December 2021.

Weaving with Colours and Textures: The Gradient Rug by Emma Terweduwe

In yesterday's post we looked at one of the projects, focused on colours and sustainability, that won the latest edition of the Henry van de Velde Awards in the category Design Research. Let's move for today onto another winner, this time from the Crafts category, with something equally colourful and sustainable - The Gradient Rug by Emma Terweduwe.

After graduating in 2019 in Textile Design at KASK Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (Belgium), the Belgian artist and designer started working on jacquard weaving for fashion and interior design using natural and durable materials.

If we study Terweduwe's Gradient Rug purely from the material and technique points of view we discover that it is a multifunctional jacquard woven felt rug in bright and vivid colours.

What makes it unique is that it is made from a combination of merino wool, mohair, linen and cotton recovered from deadstock and using both industrial and to make it Terweduwe employed manual techniques to show off the tactile qualities of these natural materials.

The tactility is enhanced with the felting technique that allows the designer to wrinkle, shrink and deform the rug. In this way the reversible rug assumes more intricate textures and shapes and a three-dimensional touch (by the way, the Gradient Rug was developed in cooperation with the TextielLab in Tilburg). 

The rug can also be used in a metaphorical way: it could indeed be interpreted as a critique to our society focusing on everything that's visually striking. Besides, touch is the main sense neglected during the Coronavirus pandemic and the rug makes good therapy for all those of us who miss touching things and getting that special soothing feeling from textiles. 

Terweduwe is one of the three winners of the Crafts category, but we will find out who will be taking home the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards per category during the presentation of the Henry van de Velde Awards on 8th February at Bozar, in Brussels, Belgium. The Lifetime Achievement, Young Talent, Company, Ecodesign by OVAM and Public Gold Awards will also be announced then.

In the meantime, we can all help determine which entry wins the Public Gold Award by voting online at henryvandevelde.be from today till 23rd December 2021.