Although passementerie and embroidery are usually found in interiors or fashion collections, visual artist Tanja Smeets used this work to investigate the spatial value of these refined techniques and how they can retain their power in larger art installations, where the work enters into a relationship with the architecture without losing its refinement.
Smeets plays with the creation of larger plaited shapes and uses industrial materials such as leaf catchers, rubber and ceramics. The result is sculptural forms instead of decorative elements, placing embroidery and passementerie in a contemporary context. With both techniques, Smeets penetrates the 'skin' of her work: “That skin is important and functions as a membrane between the installation and architecture; the skin as a fluid, picturesque boundary. I want to continue investigating and developing that boundary.”
To produce the work, Smeets joined forces with embroiderer Anna Bolk and the TextielLab’s passementerie expert Veva van der Wolf. Together, they researched the intricacies of both techniques and the way in which these complex structures could be enlarged and function independently as an installation.
Elusive, insidious growth processes play an important role in Tanya Smeets’ work. Her installations seem to infiltrate a space, attaching themselves to walls and ceilings, sometimes even appearing to embed themselves in the fabric of the building like a malignant growth. The clusters of restrained white, black and occasionally brightly coloured structures are reminiscent of fungi and toadstools. These structures are often made from simple but unusual industrial materials such as plastic soup spoons, polyester or knotted plastic thread.
2021 TextielMuseum "Makersgeheimen", 2022 Kunsthal KADE Amersfoort "Schurend Paradijs"
