Thursday Salute to Originals: Recycled Renaissance Costumes
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. These words were spoken by William Shakespeare, and now artist Suzanne Jongmans embraces this ideology on a daily basis. She is a gifted artist that finds normal in an abnormal aesthetic!
Jongmans is an interdisciplinary artist that uses her skills to create garments from recycled materials such as styrofoam, plastic, and bubble wrap. The costumes are evocative of designs from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Jongmans’ inspiration is from the garments that her grandmother and mother assembled in the past. Her influences include the works of Rembrandt and Rogier van der Weyden.
Jongmans accidentally manufactured this collection when she ran out of a fabric that she was using on a model’s costume. Working as a costume designer and incorporating her skills as a sculptor, Jongmans incorporated packing materials and molded the shape that she wanted for the photograph. As a photographer, Jongmans modifies the photograph into a flat surface. The artist believes that she “forms complex relationships between materials and tradition adding value to simple packaging whilst inviting viewers to touch her interpretation of old masters.” Her work is a substantial part of history that represents redemption in the future.
This Thursday, we salute Suzanne Jongmans and her sophisticated costumes. Her work is an affirmation about reproducing a new object from a vintage creation. This artist has the ability to bend what most people see as normal and ordinary into something that has a modern twist!
Sources: Suzanne Jongmans, This is Colossal, Design Boom