By Editor Design.nl / 20-07-2010

Domesticity / Vegetables

The exhibition Huis|Stijl (Domesticity) is an exciting combination between the history of the Zuiderzeemuseum and the present-day interpretation of this by leading Dutch designers Kiki van Eijk, Joost van Bleiswijk and designer duo Scholten & Baijings. The exhibition will run from 13 June until 10 April  2011.

Every year, the Zuiderzee Museum asks prominent artists and designers to give their vision of the collection, the Museum, and the history of the Zuiderzee. This consistently leads to surprising new designs and artworks. The Museum displays these present-day masterpieces in a setting with authentic items. In this way, a fascinating interaction between the collection and present-day design is created, and the visitor is introduced to the genesis of the artworks.

Zuiderzee Settings
The furniture, ceramics and textiles in Zuiderzee Settings by Kiki van Eijk are based upon the Zuiderzee Museum’s applied art collection. The objects refer to everyday household habits, such as ironing and making coffee on a paraffin stove.

The Poor Man’s Gold
The Poor Man’s Gold by Joost van Bleiswijk refers back to the trade missions of the Dutch East India Company, which generally departed from Enkhuizen. His scratched ceramic objects represent the occasionally hard life aboard these ships.

Truly Dutch
The five pieces of furniture of Truly Dutch. Conversation pieces for the interior by Scholten & Baijings were inspired by masterpieces from the Zuiderzee Museum’s collection of painted furniture. The pictures on the furniture are expressions from the everyday life of the designers, and show interiors, landscapes, objects, portraits, animals, flowers and fruits.

Total Table Design
In the Total Table Design project Scholten & Baijings and Kiki van Eijk present their visions for the art of dining.

Total Table Design presents table linen, glassware, crockery and cutlery. To realize the designs, the Audax Textile Museum Tilburg (table linen), Royal Leerdam Crystal (glassware) and Koninklijke van Kempen & Begeer (cutlery) joined forces. These Dutch institutions and businesses share a passion for traditional craftsmanship. They regularly work in conjunction with a select group of designers from the Netherlands and beyond to stimulate experiment and innovation. The crockery the designers developed at Cor Unum and at the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC) in Den Bosch.

Vegetables
In the year 2011 the theme of the Zuiderzee Museum will be the close and productive relationship between designers and traditional production methods. In advance of this, Scholten & Baijings have come up with Vegetables, a study of the designer as a craftsman. Their question is: will a design gain in power if it is completely realized in the design studio? They took a major Dutch export product as a source of inspiration: vegetables. They set to work with textiles, which they dyed by hand and transformed into vegetables with the help of wire. Here you can have a foretaste, and from 28 May 2011 onwards the Zuiderzee Museum will serve the full and final result.

Main image: Zuiderzee Settings and The Poor Man’s Gold
Image 1: Zuiderzee Settings
Image 2: The Poor Man’s Gold
Image 3: Truly Dutch
Image 4: Total Table Design (Kiki van Eijk)
Image 5: Total Table Design (Scholten & Baijings)
Image 6: Vegetables, photography: Yves Krol

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