Press release

Rijswijk Textile Biennial 2013
Museum Rijswijk will be mounting the third Rijswijk Textile Biennial from 15 June until 27 October.

Twenty international artists will be exhibiting the ‘state of the art’ from the world of textile art. Their work displays a virtuoso balance between the latest technology and traditional handwork. The combination of tried and tested textile techniques such as weaving, quilting and embroidery with photography, video and digital technology results in a contemporary visual language. Furthermore, what is particularly striking is the strength of engagement with social themes among a number of the exhibitors: a powerful message cloaked in soft textiles.

Gabriel Dawe captures light. He makes one-off site-specific installations of coloured threads. Clusters of threads fan out, stretching between floor and ceiling, reminiscent of captive rays of sun or a piece of the rainbow.
Astrid Krogh on the other hand drives light through her weavings of optic (acrylic) fibres. The ever-changing colour of the light source in combination with the light-transmitting fibres guarantees a dynamic artwork.
The intense colour Martin Fenne could not achieve with oil paint, he now creates using brightly coloured satin tape. Only by zooming in do his ‘Sleepers’ partially relinquish their identity. From underneath a tangle of bedclothes the vague outline of their bodies and here and there a stray arm or leg peek out.
‘Soft sculptures’ make their appearance in the installations and video clips and collages of Erik Alkema. In spite of their fluffy exterior they depict with razor-sharp precision the current political and social climate in the Netherlands.
Jim Arendt wanted to get closer to the people he painted – poor farmers from the southern United States – and now uses the clothing that pre-eminently symbolises them: their worn denim overalls and jeans.
Kristin Sæterdal still weaves in the traditional manner on a wooden loom. Her large tapestries present subjects derived from the popular culture of computer games and science fiction. Human life has vanished from her work; the predominant motif is the environment into which the spectator is absorbed.
Although handwork remains the finishing touch, a multiplicity of techniques and scientific studies converge in the work of Lia Cook. For her penetrating portraits she interweaves photography and video and digital technology with the latest research in the field of neurology.
Silja Puranen too combines the digital with traditional handwork. Used vintage materials like for example Persian rugs serve as the basis for transfer prints, which she heightens with paint and embroidery. Her protagonists – outsiders such as fairground freaks and circus artists – challenge the image of the perfect human being on all fronts.
Rosie James uses the sewing machine to embroider her life-size portraits of commuters. Stitched like a drawn line onto transparent cloth panels, they advance on you as a crowd. Passing by passers-by is for once just impossible.

All the artists
Erik Alkema (NL), James Arendt (US), Marijke Breuers (NL), Caroline de Bruijn (NL), Lia Cook (US), Gabriel Dawe (US), Martin Fenne (NL), Cindy Hickock (US), Anne Jackson (UK), Rosie James (UK), Nobuku Koizumi (JP), Astrid Krogh (DK), Ed Bing Lee (US), Anna Von Mertens (US), Dorie Millerson (CA), Silja Puranen (FI), Kristin Sæterdal (NO), Unn Sønju (NO), Grethe Sørensen (DK), Olivia Valentine (US).      

Catalogue
An illustrated catalogue (Dutch/English) of the work of the participating artists will accompany the 2013 Rijswijk Textile Biennial. The author of the catalogue is art historian Frank van der Ploeg. ISBN/EAN 978-90-8091242-9-5, € 19.75

Textile Fair
A large textile fair will be held on Sunday 15 September from 13.00 till 17.00 in the front courtyard of the museum and in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) opposite the museum.

More information and/or press photos: a.kloosterboer@museumrijswijk.nl

Museum Rijswijk
Herenstraat 67
NL-2282 BR  Rijswijk
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)70 3903617
www.museumrijswijk.nl/rtb2013/index.html

Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday from 11.00 till 17.00