description

Koen Taselaar

Koen Taselaar
Thalassophobia No More
2023
Jacquard weefsel/Jacquard weave
263 x 325 cm
editie van 3 + 1 ap

Provenance

directly from the artist

Detail Description

In the world of Koen Taselaar (Rotterdam, 1986), things are always just that little bit different. In the colourful, jacquard-woven tapestry Thalossophobia No More, the central motif is the mythical seven-headed dragon. According to tradition, the evil monster is afraid of nothing except water. In Taselaar's version, the dragon has overcome its fear of deep waters, and the age-old story takes a new twist.

This light-hearted and sometimes absurdist approach is characteristic of Taselaar's artistry. He quotes and combines, elaborates his ideas on paper or in the computer, and translates them into various materials such as ceramics, textiles, paint on canvas and screen printing. Taselaar draws inspiration for this tapestry from a variety of subjects: from medieval tapestries such as the Apocalypse Tapestry from Angers (F), and the French Millefleurs tapestries.

Taselaar is particularly interested in how images are constructed and how new meanings are created by bringing things together in slightly different time-space relationships. For his recent series of rugs, for example, he studied the typically flat, non-linear composition of medieval tapestries, which, he discovered, differs little from the visual architecture of early computer games. Taselaar himself describes his work as "a stacking of motifs".



Koen Taselaar (Rotterdam, 1986) works in a variety of media including ceramics, textiles, screen printing, painting, pencil and paper. His artistry can be described as a search for formal and material properties of 'the thing', drawing inspiration from a wide range of subjects and constantly looking for unexpected twists in the relationships between things. Taselaar exhibits at home and abroad, and participated in group exhibitions at Marres, Maastricht (2022); Kunstmuseum Den Haag; Collectie de Groen, Arnhem; TextielMuseum, Tilburg and the MMCA Seoul, South Korea (all 2019), among others. In 2016, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen organised his solo exhibition Meander Wildly. Commissioned by the Hermitage Foundation in St Petersburg, Taselaar designed a nearly eight-metre-long tapestry telling the story of the history of Tsar Peter the Great in 2020. In Melly, Rotterdam, Taselaar's contribution can currently be seen in the new artistic environment of the café-annex-bookstore, and in 2024 the CCC OD in Tours, France, will present a solo exhibition by the artist.