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‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t much care where-’ said Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. ‘-so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation. ‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.’”
From Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Kiki working at the Grandmother’s Clock Frame, Floating Frames Series, 2010 / This framework is a kind of threedimensional knitting, but different!
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Kiki age 7 in her parents garden in Venlo / Making things in the garden, in the sun. I still love it! My best ideas arise while working in the garden of a summerhouse in Picardie, France
Kiki Carpet Special, material research, 2000 / For my graduation work I researched needlework techniques by learning them from an old lady in my grandmother’s street. I like exploring the boundaries between hobby and professional creations
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Kiki Carpet Special, felted wool, 200 x 300 x 5 cm, 2000
Sculptural Poems, illustrations of historical Dutch anthology poems, 10 x 15 cm, 2000
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K
iki van Eijk’s career began in 2000 with her hand-knotted carpet “We’re living in a doll’s house” better known as the “Kiki Carpet”- with which she graduated with distinction from the design academy in Eindhoven. Ever since she presented herself as Alice in Wonderland on the enormously enlarged rose pattern, she has been a rising star on the Dutch Design firmament. And her studio, which she shares with partner, designer and love of her life Joost van Bleiswijk, is growing along with her. These days, the couple is working in a former Philips paper factory in Eindhoven, with their own carpentry workshop, metal workshop, showroom, offices, etc. It’s very impressive but the pieces are as simple and playful as thirteen years ago. On shelving units, pieces for a chic French fashion house are waiting to be painted. With miniature boats, horse reins, little bales of straw and models of an old coat, the place exudes the atmosphere of a toy shop rather than a design studio. Kiki appears to have returned to the doll’s house where it all began. Even during her studies, it was already clear that she wanted to make toys for grown-ups. Her teachers jokingly suggested she make electric drills. But that wasn’t what she meant. She didn’t associate toys with tools – even if now she wouldn’t mind designing a set of gardening tools or a picnic set: “to emphasize the joys of working in the garden or to point out the fun of having a picnic to people”. Rather than looking for specific “toys” or “tools”, she wanted to make designs that were looser and more organic than the designs which were hot at the end of the nineties: “In those days design was very minimalist. I’m a huge fan of the artist Donald Judd and also love Pastoe’s designs, they are fantastic. But for my own work I wanted things to be more playful.” Kiki isn’t a designer who feels the need to opine on design as such. She is of the opinion that every designer should do what he or she has got to do. In her own case, most designs spring from an intuitive and associative process. The best ideas arise from doing, and coincidence is allowed to play its part. Different series of designs are linked by material, form or idea and this in ever changing sequences. She seeks the freedom to make whatever she feels like. In this she has remained the child playing with fake Barbies in a shelving unit: on every shelf she built a different room. As a child she enjoyed drawing and making craft projects or she played outside. And on holiday she made water colours of the French landscape with her father. These are all things which today’s acclaimed designer still does or would like to do.
Kiki van Eijk From doing
Kiki sees the world in her very own way. She pushes me to think as free as possible
KIKI. Everywhere in the world people can pronounce Kiki’s name! Were Joost (as in toast) causes many problems, everybody can say Kiki. It’s the same with her designs. Everybody can understand and appreciate her ideas. It’s like Kiki’s designs settle themselves in our hearts because they feel right, playful and honest, made with pure dedication and love. It’s the same as how Kiki is settled in my heart.
Joost is very critical about my work in a gentle way. He’s taking me towards boundaries, helping me to go across JOOST.
Joost is almost like you pronounce his name: Jóóst! Energetic, strong, masculine, powerful, but at the same time very soft and warm. Rigid, but also extremely playful. To me, one of his last series called “collage” is the most Joost of all his works. It’s smart, bold and intelligent, it has humour and makes me smile, which is sweet. Within the humour there’s also a very serious and eye-opening part. I you!
No Screw No Glue Candelabrum, polished stainless steel, 56 x 56 x 111 cm, 2008
No Screw No Glue Candle Holder, 10 x 10 x 56 cm; No Screw No Glue Little Clock, 25 x 19 x 37 cm; No Screw No Glue Hourglass, 24 x 24 x 72 cm, 2007
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No Screw No Glue Chessboard, polished stainless steel, 64 x 64 x 24 cm, 2007 / The Chessboard is for me the ultimate icon of a game. We spent a lot of time to capture the feeling of the archetypical chesspieces into cubist, minimalist shapes.
Throne chair, macassar ebony veneer, 46 x 54 x 160 cm, 2007
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No Screw No Glue High Clock, polished stainless steel, 46 x 34 x 230 cm, 2006
Spartan chair, solid oak wood, 45 x 48 x 82 cm, 2005
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Even a toddler would instantly recognise a chair, a desk, a table, a clock and a lamp in the furniture collection Out Line by Joost van Bleiswijk (1976). However, the desk doesn't have any drawers nor does the clock have any dials; the lamp doesn't even emit any light. Van Bleiswijk has reduced this furniture to just its outline, hence the name. “They are not functional objects, but an exploration of the archetypical form of a product type”, the designer from Eindhoven explains. “What is the shape of the simplest possible clock that can still be recognised by everyone? And why do people immediately recognise this shape as being a clock?” Van Bleiswijk's quest for the archetype results in a kind of pictogram of a piece of furniture. His table, chair, desk, lamp and clock look as if they have been drawn by a child with an exceptionally steady hand. Outlines is van Bleiswijk's final project at the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2001. A clear idea, thoroughly researched, and well-executed – in short: an excellent student. But the real work is still to come: clocks that tick and functioning lamps. In order to do make them, the young designer explores new shapes, materials and constructions. He designs nickel clocks with dials, sturdy solid oak cabinets and indestructible stainless steel tables. But all these designs have clear, recognisable forms – they only just fall short of outlines. Van Bleiswijk's clear visual language is no longer a quest for the archetype, but the logical result of the construction process. Take No Screw No Glue, his 2007 breakthrough furniture collection. Cabinets, candlesticks and serving trays have been constructed out of tens, sometimes even hundreds, of little sheets of stainless steel. These shiny sheets have been cut into shapes, precise down to a millimetre, and fit together like a complex three-dimensional puzzle. No screws or glues are needed to give strength and stability to this furniture. The products which Van Bleiswijk designs according to the no screw no glue-principle are classics, almost nostalgic. An alarm-clock becomes a monumental hourglass, a set of scales functions with contra-weights, like at an old-fashioned greengrocer's. “Because the products are constructed out of rectangular sheets, the forms tend to become geometrical, almost abstract. This forces me to choose recognisable images. People immediately recognise scales or an hourglass.”
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