"With lace all the value is invested in the labour and so it seemed a good idea to start working with cheap materials. But also, by changing the material you can change the references". That is how the Dutch designer, who studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and now teaches industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London, sums up his design-thought, instilled with dreamy passion but also great craft skill and patient manual execution.
Expectations are invariably maintained in the new exhibition that London’s Marsden Woo gallery, directed and founded by Tatjana Marsden and Nelson Woo in Clerkenwell in 1998, is holding until the end of July. Those looking forward to the spectacular lacework and light, airy embroidery to which he has accustomed us for years will not be disappointed. A fine 3D cobweb in Aramide, a man-made fibre that withstands the heat, and Dynema, another fibre used to manufacture traction cables and normally applied in the sporting world, give rise to a unique sofa – the product of expert handicraft and unconventional materials.
A natural raffia curtain decorated with a tangle of floral motifs (created last year after an invitation to work with the Design Center of the University of Philadelphia and the Quaker Lace Company) descends from the ceiling and divides the gallery space. His most delicate works include items of jewellery (necklaces and hairpieces), lamps and a selection of test samples made in unlikely natural materials such as grass.
A video in the exhibition illustrates the execution of the raffia lace-work in pictures and gives an insight into a work process that Boontje describes as "spontaneous – not organized and symmetrical". Elena Sommariva