Noud Sleumer is a conceptual designer whose role is to critique ‘the act of making’. Within self-initiated and explorative projects his focus is trained on methods of deconstruction and reduction. Simplicity is the tool that underlies these approaches and enables Sleumer to create new playgrounds of creativity, in which we can collectively re-examine our relationship to man-made matter.
This collection of 17 objects shows the deconstruction of Gerrit Rietveld’s Red Blue Chair, designed and made in 1923. This legendary piece was created following the principles of pure abstraction, essential forms and colour. Yet what is presented here pushes these ideas to their logical but previously untouched conclusion. By abstracting the abstract, the Eindhoven based designer Noud Sleumer has dared to challenge the Dutch design canon, and has appropriated the chair back for the masses. Much like the iconoclastic Theo van Doesburg, Sleumer confronts and subverts widely assumed beliefs. His work asks us to explore history, while warning us not to preserve and worship it.
Text by Josh Plough
Archieven Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, photo: Peter Cox, Eindhoven.
Archieven Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, photo: Peter Cox, Eindhoven.
Archieven Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, photo: Peter Cox, Eindhoven.