Gijs Wouters

Black Sheep

bygijswouters

Location

arnhem / netherlands

University

ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem

Graduation year

2020

Contact

The Dutch product designer grew up with a great fascination for the Landscape. From this fascination he developed a working method in which he constantly questions the assigned values and the influence of man on his immediate environment. Curiously moving through the present and the past, city and nature, discipline and craft.

Highlights from a range of other experiences, an internship at Feng Chen Wang in London, the Textile Summer School in Kyoto Japan and the Craft Project Ceramics in Jingdezhen China organised by the Product design department at ArtEZ university of the arts, all contributed to a great deepening, acquiring knowledge and insights on very diverse levels. Taken together, these experiences do not only reflect his multidisciplinary expertise, but also the search and exploration of a fluid identity from the perspective of man and material.

'It is the total world and an eye for detail that makes Gijs's work complete.'

His open attitude, rethinking, research, work drive, perfection, hunger for knowledge, interest in commerce, collaboration and networking and unrelenting energy describe Gijs Wouters' strong diversity of design qualities.

Latest Collection

LIquid statue

'Playing with the time-line and fluid origin of material and application in a cultural landscape.'

Gijs released his graduation collection under the working title 'Liquid Statue', which has developed on two tracks, firstly as a research into porcelain and secondly as application and fluidity of its use. One of the key ingredients in porcelain is the granite China clay, a raw material once of great value, but now threatened by time and technology. The China-Clay mines mines witnessed in both Cornwall but also earlier during his study course in Jingdezhen China have left their marks on the landscape and refer to an industry that is slowly disappearing.
Choosing China-Clay (porcelain) as his main source, he started a process by questioning the identity of the raw material, the forms and uses which the raw material has explored in the past and how it relates to the rapidly changing values of our desirable possessions today.

He started by simply grinding the stoneware to grit and after that moved forward trying to create a flexible material. This has developed as an experimental research with the wish to develop further within different disciplines. For this purpose, a clear archive has been made that explains the material samples in terms of its specific qualities and possible applications.

From the material research Gijs developed a series of bags, which are not only showing the tech- nical qualities, but also translate in color and appearance a strong reference to the original shape of the raw material.

A collaboration has been set up with the Arnhem based fashion designer Sjaak Hullekes, with whom he demonstrates the textile properties of the material. Working together Gijs further developed the material into a porcelain textile, from where pattern parts for an archetype jacket and trousers have been assembled with the binding qualities of the material.

“Like artefacts pulled from the ground, the objects reflect our valuable possessions of today, we move like porcelain statues, showing off our possessions.”

Photography: Boris Lutters
Model: Wies Roemaat
Set Help: Micheal de Geus