Artwork ‘Enlighten ME’: A Blend of Tradition and Technology
WEMELDINGE, NETHERLANDS – On July 15th, 2022, ‘Needle Wizard’ and Printoptical Artist Minke van de Zande unveiled her latest artwork ‘Enlighten Me’ at the Luximprint Creative Factories in Wemeldinge, Netherlands. The artwork contains a unique blend of advanced optical 3D printing technology, textile art, and traditional needle wizardry.
3D Printed Water Droplets
Japanse Prints
Born in 1974 in Utrecht, Van de Zande has been creative as an artist, complementing her full-time job as a civil servant. Ever since her youth, she has been involved in needlework. When her son asked her to apply a badge on his bathrobe recently, she re-discovered her hobby. “I am getting excited about fidgeting and fiddling. Unfortunately, I am less talented in drawing real imaginary, so I went after interesting images to reproduce.” While searching the internet, I got inspired by Japanese Prints. “These are produced with ancient wood-press technology. Highly complicated, but it is exactly that part I fell in love with.” She decided to take a deep dive into this ancient tradition, and even made it to the museum archives. “The depot of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is easily accessible. How nice! Unfortunately, they did not provide me with the answers needed. So did the Museum of Volkenkunde in Leiden, instead. De conservator honestly told me that the Japanese Prints, unfortunately, did not look very attractive anymore, as they significantly aged over time. The authenticity was gone. That triggered me however to explore how they DID look like in their original state.” Minke teamed up with the conservator and completed a lot of internet and field research. This finally led to her first exposition ‘Surimono in Silk’. Van de Zande translated the ‘lost’ Japanse prints, some of them dating back to 1830, to silk and embroidery techniques. “I was allowed to have seven embroidery screens of about 70*70 cm on display at ‘Museum De Kantfabriek’ in Horst, Netherlands. As this attracted a lot of people, I got confused! Did they like my work, or didn’t they?” Fortunately, they did. Meanwhile, Van de Zandes’ needle wizardry, weaving, and embroidery techniques went abroad and face global engagement.
Optical 3D Printing – A Next Dimension
For ‘Surimono in silk’, Minke intended to bridge traditional lace-making and modern-day technology. In fact, this is exactly what she is doing again with ‘Enlighten ME’. Traditional needle-wizardry, embroidery technology, latch-hooking (Smyrna techniques), as often used by carpet weavers, and the lastest optical 3D printing methodologies are blended. “Textile and embroidery are always connected by a thread. Contrary to that, I wanted to create something different for my ‘water project’, rather using independently organized items.” Conducting her fieldresearch, she ran into a glass-blower, make-up artist and epoxy experts before finally making it to a ‘printed-glasses-factory’ in Belgium. “They redirected me to John and Marco, founders of Luximprint.” Hence, a unique cooperation was born. “The access to the core-technology of Luximprint, including the fluent dynamics of optically clear 3D print resin offers new perspectives for artists”, according to John Gerrits, Technical Director at Luximprint. “Now, artists can start to play with day- and artificial lighting and add a next dimension to their artworks”
Printoptical.Art Platform
Luximprint recently soft-launched its ‘Printoptical.Art Platform’ aiming for a final introduction by Q4/2022. “In addition to Van de Zande, we welcomed and trained various ‘Printoptical Artists’ from The Netherlands and abroad.” After the initial presentation in Wemeldinge, the ‘Enlighten ME’ artwork travels to ‘Museum de Kantfabriek’ in Horst, where it will be on display by the end of 2022.
MORE INFORMATION
The launch of the artwork will take place by Friday July 15th, 2022 at the Luximprint Creative Factories in Wemeldinge, Netherlands. Artists and interested parties are invited to join the event. More information is available at www.printoptical.art.
