Christien Meinderstma & One Sheep Sweater

When I fist encountered Christien Meindertsma’s work, I was captivated by her novel approach to unlocking the “hidden” potentials of information/practices/materials. Meindertsma became well known for her project PIG 05049 in which she spent three years researching all of the products made from one single pig. Notes the artist: “Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel.” The information derived from this research was then extensively illustrated, cataloged and documented to form a book as well as an exhibition which presents the legacy of each and every single part of the pig and it’s transformation into (almost) innumerable products.

What is seductive in PIG 05049 is the pervasive way in which one entity—a single pig—can bleed into a multitude of zones and have a variegated influence and presence in so many industries and products ranging from weapons of war to candy to home decoration. It illustrates what Bruno Latour in “We Have Never Been Modern” describes as the complex interconnectedness of the world we live in which cannot be materially or socially segregated. According to Latour, the conceit of the Modernist project was to imagine that environmental, material and social elements could be isolated and controlled in an autonomous, independent and “purified” manner. In fact, what we have come to realize is quite the opposite, which is that we are part of a rhizomatic, networked structure of peoples, agencies and materials in a distinctively premodern, or unmodern fashion. This theme is explored at length by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their now very famous book “A Thousand Plateaus”—which argues that this network of elements cannot be easily contained, nor should they be as their overlaps give rise to the richness and complexity of nature, existence and experience.

Meindertsma’s overarching project as an artist lies in revealing the unique rhizomatic networks of materials, which she does by way of researching their provenance and qualities while exploring their potential for unique transformations, or, as noted on her website, to “regain understanding of processes that have become so distant in industrialization.” For the project “One Sheep Sweater” which she has been exploring on and off since graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2003 with an earlier version of the similar project, “One Sheep Cardigan“, Meindertsma sought to create a product which was locally sourced, yet highly individually and technically produced. Or in other words, a locally produce eco-conscious high-tech design. Seemingly an oxymoron, the result is a series of 3D printed sweaters made from the wool of local sheep. Again, she explores the 1:1 scale of the animal (similarly to the PIG 05049 project) by limiting the material of each sweater to one sheep. This means that the unique qualities of the singular sheep are present in the finished product and retain the individual history and particularities of that animal. A secondary exploration is the interfacing of a raw and “craft” material, such as locally spun wool, with the technical restraints of 3D knitting machines. This confrontation creates “accommodations” from both the material and technical spectrum as the wool needs to be treated and considered in a different way then if it was intended for hand knitting, while the knitting machines need to be adjusted and operated in such a manner as to permit the use of this particular wool. These accommodations make us more sensitive to the material qualities and more in touch with where things come from and how they are transformed.

Further read: Christien Mienderstma Interview on Fashioning Technology.

This series of blog posts are an analysis of the works recently presented at the V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media Text_Lab “Clothing without Cloth” event I curated which included: Emily Crane (UK), Carole Collet (UK), Christien Meindertsma (NL), Grado Zero Espace (IT), Pauline van Dongen (NL) and Freedom of Creation (NL).