At the Tilburg TextileMuseum, in the south of The Netherlands, Kuniko Maeda and Mario Minale from Studio Minale-Maeda present their new Zoetrope Bench and Tweened Damask. The project is on display as part of the Turkish Red & More exhibition, curated by Caroline Boot with alongside projects by BCXSY, Studio Formafantasma, Merel Boers and Lenneke Langenhuijsen.
Invited by the Textiel Museum to work with their collection for the exhibition Turkish Red &
More, Minale-Maeda's interest was sparked by the multitude of patterns in the fabrics of the
collection and how they come to be through the repetition of same motives. A parallel
emerged to the repetition of motives with slight differences in the experiments of Eadweard
Muybridge, a pioneer of moving images, who did studies of movement over time by taking
pictures of moving things in short succession. Each frame was slightly different than the one
before and their rapid succession would create the illusion of movement.
The comparative simplicity but stunning effect of both techniques, patterns and a sequence
of slightly different images, proved fascinating. With contemporary digitally assisted weaving
and printing, patterns do not need to repeat over a whole roll of fabric in small segments but
can change over the whole length. So why not make the patterns change similarly to images
put in sequence and create an animation in the fabric, expanding the narrative quality of
patterns and breaking up the monotonous part of the repetition, without going out of pattern.
Minale-Maeda: Zoetrope Bench and Tweened Damask
Invited by the Tilburg Textiel Museum to work with their collection, Minale-Maeda designed two pieces inspired by the patterns in the fabrics of the museum, that give an illusion of movement.
View Article details
- 13 March 2013
- Tilburg
The project deals with the historical limitation evolved into conventions in weaving and
upholstering and how these influence today's production techniques. The improvement in
technology is employed to subtly expand on the qualities of the originals while maintaining
the conceptual simplicity and the transparency it brings.
Video: Robert Adriessen
The idea was developed into a showpiece for the collection, a round bench upholstered with
a fabric with a collage of subtly changing and moving patterns from the museum collection,
from narrative to abstract and from renaissance damask to art noveau, from leaves swaying
in the wind to abstract patterns de- and recomposing. Each layered element tries to respect
the weaving or printing techniques of each pattern.
A variation of the idea was applied to a damask tablecloth with a vegetal motive. Referencing the animation technique of creating in-between frames to key frames, whereby again the illusion of movement is created, a new pattern was made, that would show a narcissus plant blossoming and decaying, this time not over the course of iterations of the pattern but by layering the different stages, helped by the subtle graphic quality of damask fabric.
Studio Minale-Maeda: Zoetrope Bench and Tweened Damask
Design and concept: Studio Minale-Maeda
Photos: Tommy Fotografie
Video "Turkish red": Robert Adriessen
Project development: Kuniko Maeda, Mario Minale, Jin-Sik Kim, Selma Durand, Beatrice
Ranai
Through 26 May 2013
Turkish Red & More
Tilburg Textile Museum
Goirkestraat 96, Tilburg, The Netherlands