Koen Taselaar
Koen Taselaar
Extrapolate Wildly, The Conclusive Shrine of Ideas and Concepts, and Speculative Saliva
The summer 2024 exhibition ‘Spuiten en stikken’ (spraying and stitching) at the Centraal Museum Utrecht brought together graffiti and textile art. Specially for this exhibition, Koen Taselaar and product developer Lotte van Dijk created three new tapestries measuring 170 x 255 cm: Extrapolate wildly, The conclusive shrine of ideas and concepts, and Speculative saliva. Taselaar played with visual language to elaborate on stories linked to the exhibition’s theme.
For example, Speculative saliva is about the Gila monster. The saliva of this venomous lizard contains the same appetite-suppressing substance as Ozempic, the diabetes drug that has become a popular weight-loss aid. Each tapestry is its own visual puzzle, filled with intriguing details. The graphic stories were woven with grid-like weaves that produce different rib structures. The tapestries will next be on display in February 2025 in Taselaar’s solo exhibition at the CCCOD in Tours, France.
Centraal Museum, photos by Gert Jan van Rooij
Communion cloth
The Luther Museum Amsterdam commissioned Koen Taselaar to design an altar cloth and accompanying runner. They were used during the annual Ascension Day service in the museum and were on display there until September 2024 in the exhibition ‘Saligh Weaving’. The pieces are now travelling to other Lutheran churches.
The jacquard-woven fabric represents a contemporary interpretation of traditional religious symbols, exploring both the depth of faith and the diversity of modern art. The work was inspired by the Bible story in which the resurrected Christ appears to two men walking along the road to Emmaus. The story is beloved by the Christian LGBTQ+ community, because Jesus appears to two friends who ‘voluntarily belong together’. Swans, which frequently appear in Lutheran art, are subtly incorporated on the back of the fabric. The altar cloth is made of wool and acrylic while the runner is made of cotton.
