Silk Menagerie
Date: 2002
Commissioned by: Hermès, Paris
Type: Exhibition
In February 2002 Jongerius was invited to visit the immense attic in Paris where Hermes stores about every item that is part of its collection, including the objects that serve as inspiration. “I found myself placed in an ornamental setting that we’re no longer familiar with. It reminded me instantly of hunters’ galas, of 17th century still-lives in which tables are loaded with fruit, oysters, glassware and a lot of dead meat, symbolizing all the major subjects in life from sexual enjoyment to fear of poverty and decay.”
She wanted to integrate this experience in the installation with Hermes silk at the Design Museum Tank. She also wanted to use the fabric optimally and chose for lamps with light bulbs, playing with the thinness of the silk and the many perforations in the porcelain.
From the collection of scarves she picked four prints that had animals as a topic and played her own game with them; mixing the silk material with porcelain, enlarging the bugs, using only the outline of a bird in the sky, having a bird meeting a dog, almost like mating… The animals on the scarves feast on at the upper porcelain part where the silk decorations are continued in embroidery, which also serves as the connection between the two materials.
The installation in the Design Museum Tank is completed with glass eatables, like a huge lump of bread and a sausage, placed on a roughly wooden table with very basic, aluminum supports.