By Gabrielle Kennedy / 30-09-2010

It’s hard to believe that Ontwerpduo’s Nathan Wierink and Tineke Beunders graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven just two years ago.  The pair, along with their characteristic charisma, seem to be constantly making new work and exhibiting whenever possible.

For this year’s Inside Design Amsterdam at the Lloyd Hotel, their familiar fascination with childhood memories remains in tact.  They showed a chair built into a rocking crib and a swinging birdcage chair.  Their stand-out, however, was an entire room dedicated fairytale inspired designs.

“This was all an actual assignment,” says Wierink. “The client originally saw our marble game table at Pierre Berge auction house in Brussels.  He considered buying it but decided to contact us directly to see what else we could do for him.”

The client, who resides in a remote farmhouse outside of Amsterdam, has commissioned various designers like Studio Job and other artists to come up with inspired solutions for each room.  “Our design is for a nine-year-old girl,” Woerink says, “but it still has to make sense when she grows up and leaves.”

Recurring themes in tales like Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and the Princess and the Pea were explored and extrapolated to create the fantasy room.

Pipes that traverse the ceiling end in lights, tiny bulbs look trapped in over-sized glass bottles, and of course colourful mattresses pile up on top of one another to create a bed.

Ontwerpduo plan to have the sprawling ceiling lights commercially produced.  “The way we did these ones is very labour intensive,” he explains, “but we can find a way to make it more simple.”

That might even be possible under Woerink and Beunders’ new commercial label that they plan to release next year.  “Ontwerpduo will remain for art pieces,” Woerink says, “but we want to also be able to experiment with mass production.  Most of what we do is assignment work, but through that we come up with things that make good commercial sense.”

Another interesting project exhibited to a backdrop of Eric Satie tunes was Jo Meesters’ exploration of process for his PULP series.  He started this series back in 2007 after sourcing vessels on Markplaats and second hand stores to play around with materials and explore ways to make the improbable work.

Starting with a bowl of newspaper and a pot of glue, this exhibition showed the four steps Meesters’ vessels go through before finishing up as brilliant black containers.

The newspaper is mixed with glue to create a pulp.  The moulds are prepared and then the materials packed in.  “A lot of people don’t realize how we remove the moulds,” Meesters says.  “We cut them in half and then use fresh pulp to assemble the pieces back together again.  It’s the repairing stage.”

Sanding, a coat of resin and some black paint creates a tactile appearance that might easily be lush velvet.  “I like these because they look like very heavy stone, but if you pick them up they are really light,” says Meesters.  

Meesters latest work, including a textile and some new pieces in ceramics, will be exhibited during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.


Click on images to enlarge - top main and small at left by Marly Gommans for Ontwerpduo.  Small on top page and bottom at left Pulp by Jo Meesters.

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