OBJECT Rotterdam exhibited repurposed textile art by Nanette De Kool

Leftover textiles, yarns and fabrics from production flaws are rendered inefficacious and tossed into landfills contributing to further environmental degradation. Although Dutch textile designer Nanette de Kool believes in the imperfections of waste fabrics as a step towards sustainability, summoning them into her new collection ‘Interpunctie’, “The raw edges, knitting flaws or ink patterns give the textiles their own character,” shares Nanette. The textile art collection was recently showcased at the OBJECT Rotterdam fair in the monumental HAKA building, Rotterdam from February 10 to 12, 2023. The industrial HAKA set the backdrop for a slew of recognised brands and emerging designers. An interdisciplinary design fair, OBJECT exhibited intriguing objects in the fields of design, interior design, fashion and art with an emphasis on craftsmanship and handicrafts. The design festival was born with a vision of capturing the striking manners of new-age craftsmanship channelled into objects made with great attention to materials.

OBJECT, as in previous years, was part of Rotterdam Art Week. During these times, the HAKA-building served as a base for tourists to explore the diverse Vierhavensgebied. Numerous studios open their doors in this Rotterdam district, where visitors may view diverse shows presented by the design festival. The Vierhavensgebied is also recognised for its many design studios, including those of Sabine Marcelis, Richard Hutten, Simone Post, and Daan Roosegaarde. The interdisciplinary platform offered a playful alternative to the more traditional design fairs and marked the attendance of both professionals and consumers. "We always welcome many youngsters and people who don’t usually enter a gallery or museum. The fair must remain accessible to both participants and visitors, especially now that prices are skyrocketing everywhere," said Anne van der Zwaag, director of OBJECT Rotterdam. "Interior design is relevant to everyone and people are always curious about eye-catching trends and sustainable material applications. The latest designs are also remarkably playful and exuberant, which you often see in times of crisis."

‘Interpunctie’ by the Dutch textile designer translates to "punctuation" in Dutch, with the pieces in the collection, touted Hyphen - applied to join words or parts of a word channelling a sense of connection, Semicolon applied to create a pause to and grasp a breath or Virgule indicating a choice between different options, inspired by different punctuation marks. Nanette’s inspiration behind using the concept of punctuation marks is their function in a sentence, “Symbols in a sentence that create a break, a breath, in a sentence, in your head. To get a message across, but also to pause,” she shares. Nanette believes that the pause brought by punctuation marks holds life and inspiration, establishing the possibility to notice its beauty. These symbols are manifested as graphics on the fabric that translates a story. Nanette's usage of 3D Knitwear renders a tactile, three-dimensional feel to the textile art, typical of her visual design language. “Due to the additional fillings in the fabrics, shadows also become part of the design,” shares Nanette on the 3D materiality of the fabric.

Experienced as a designer and stylist, Nanette held a strong ground in the fashion industry post her graduation from the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago. Nanette’s inclination towards textile design began in The Netherlands where she worked with textile pioneer ByBorre. In April 2022, Nanette presented her 'Fragments' collection at the Bisou Gallery, Amsterdam, a collection inspired by personal memories manifested into a visual culmination of fragments collaged together. Images and video stills combined with text screen printed onto recycled fabric, the new collection follows a similar collage of recycled fabrics theme owning to Nanette's sustainable approach. Interpunctie is a physical manifestation of her love for fabrics. Each piece is screen-printed, washed, cut and then re-assembled to form unique compositions drawing a deeper language in colour, character and texture.

The 'Interpunctie' collection is a step towards a conscious textile industry where every fabric manufactured has a circular lifecycle. Platforms like OBJECT Rotterdam in collaboration with multidisciplinary designers have spotlighted sustainability at the art festival.