The things you see in the museum are just the tip of the iceberg, because behind the scenes is a large depot of stored works of art. The works from the museum collection can not only be seen in our exhibitions because we also lend them to other museums. When not on display, everything is carefully stored and maintained. Every year the TextielMuseum purchases objects and installations in the field of art and design. The team of curators keeps an eye on both makers who have been active for years and young talent. When looking at potential purchases, they look at criteria such as concept, innovation, sustainability and cultural diversity. A choice is finally made from a long list of works. Recently, beautiful works have been added to the collection.

Malaysian culture examined

One of the young talents whose work was acquired in 2022 is the artist Marcos Kueh. Last year he graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and for his final project he worked in the TextielLab on the series Kenyalang Circus. This title stands for freak show or human zoo and the purchased tapestry Rasa Sayang comes from this series. With this work, Marcos questions the authenticity of his culture through a satirical look at the commercialised, exotic image of Sarawak Borneo: ‘the Malaysian, exotic unknown’. But the artist also tries to find pride in his culture. The tapestry shows the image of a mask from Borneo with the text ‘Rasa sayang’ above it. This is the title of a song that every Malaysian knows and sang in their childhood. According to Kueh, it is one of the few things that racially connects Malaysians.

Rasa Sayang by Marcos Kueh – Photo in TextielLab: Patty van den Elshout

Graphic work from Tilburg

Artist and designer Sigrid Calon can regularly be found in the TextielLab, but works with many more materials and techniques outside of it. In her graphic oeuvre, you will find a metal facade here in Tilburg, flags for a temple in Japan and a ceiling that lights up in Amsterdam. She also developed a series of tea towels and plaids for the label byTextielMuseum that are an ode to weaving and knitting.
Her tapestry Woven Textile #77 was recently purchased for the collection and is part of an ongoing series that is produced in the TextielLab. The weave is designed in such a way that you see different versions of the same work on the front and back. The graphic risograph print gives a good representation of the grid that forms the basis of this composition.

Risograph print Sigrid Calon

Coffee bags unravelled into white gold

In addition to Marcos Kueh, young talent Rosana Escobar has also attracted our attention with her cultural work. The Colombian designer graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2020 and wanted to delve into the fique fibre for her final exam work. Fique is nowadays mainly grown to make coffee bags and is therefore seen as a low-quality material. Fique used to be known in Colombia as ‘oro blanco’ (the white gold), so Rosana started to explore the possibilities of the raw fique fibre, looking for traditional Colombian handicraft techniques that were applied to it. She unravelled discarded coffee sacks and then felted the material, resulting in beautiful carpets and tapestries. During her research, she discovered that fique is a very strong, fine, soft and shiny fibre that has interesting application options. From her project Oro Blanco – Unraveling the coffee bag, carpet Secondary Raw, wall object Espina and pouf Bundle have been included in our collection.

Carpet Secondary Raw and Pouf Bundle. Photos Iris Rijskamp and Yohan Lopez

Multifunctional anatomy

Finally, an innovative work by Nynke Tynagel and the art initiative inCC, called Anatomic. She made a design that reflects the internal workings of the human body and, together with BYBORRE, managed to translate it into a 3D knit. The work references board games and educational diagrams and is based on the artist’s desire to further explore human connections. Thanks to the wooden frame, Anatomic can be hung on the wall or used as a lounger. The double functionality was a deliberate choice by inCC: driven by their mission to make more with less.

Photo Carlfried Verwaayen

These works are added to our collection. So for now they remain behind the scenes, but maybe one day you will see them in one of our exhibitions.
Did you know that a large part of the collection can also be viewed online? Here you can see an overview of hundreds of works.

Here you will find the current and future exhibitions.