Artist Installs a Dazzling Bejeweled Carpet in Amsterdam’s Royal Palace

Photo: Benning/Gladcova, Royal Palace Amsterdam

Dutch artist Suzan Drummen has always identified herself completely enchanted by things that glisten and sparkle. From the colored silver foil diligently taken out from a chocolate egg to the sleek, gleaming outer shell of a chestnut. This fascination, nurtured considering the fact that childhood, has now produced its way into her artwork. Given that 2002, Drummen has been producing dazzling art installations with her developing selection of shiny objects. One particular of her latest assignments led her to craft an intricately bejeweled carpet of kaleidoscopic patterns and color on the floor of a regal salon in the Royal Palace Amsterdam.

As component of a specific exhibition, titled Trailblazers, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Netherland’s Royal Award for Contemporary Portray, Drummen was invited along with 17 other collaborating artists to submit an artwork that engages in a dialogue with the Royal Palace. Developed around nine times with a crew of 3 assistants, Drummen’s carpet installation is a immediate reaction to the Golden Age architecture of the setting up and the stately Empire furniture that adorns the home.

“Sometimes I seem for contrasts, and from time to time I consider to insert the substance pretty nicely into the area as if it has generally been there,” Drummen tells My Modern Satisfied. “Usually it is a mix of equally, so in some places, it clashes and in other sites, it is in harmony with the space. It is normally a whole process that requires a number of days. Some selections I make intuitively and some others really thoughtfully and decisively. It is always a blend and a large adventure.”

Setting up with no any drawing or prepare manufactured beforehand, Drummen and her group placed each individual glowing rhinestone by hand, letting them to naturally respond to the shade, light-weight, and environment of the location. The fluorescent hues of the jewels and gemstones that blanket the carpet are meant to clash with the far more sober and subdued tones of the room’s decor. Due to the fact the items have been remaining unsecured, by the conclude of the installation, it was a just about not possible feat to stroll through the salon at all. And, for that reason, friends are only allowed to watch the piece from its doorways.

“When viewing a do the job,” Drummen continues, “the viewer encounters two opposing forces: On the just one hand, the brilliance, colour, and the rhythm plunge a viewer into a visually intoxicating environment, which appears to be to want to kidnap the eyes to a paradise. On the other hand, the unique spots, the distinctive details of check out, the concrete product, and the great contrasts guide the viewer again to their have perception, so that full consciousness about what is intoxicating, happens. Within just the status quo of the present artwork discourse, attractiveness and intoxication are generally witnessed as meaningless. In my perform, even so, I proceed to investigate it.”

The wonderful and dizzying array of colours, styles, and textures that reveal themselves in Drummen’s perform are frequently motivated by the torrent of details we are continuously bombarded with as a culture in today’s environment. Irrespective of the elegance of this sort of unparalleled entry to human awareness, this phenomenon most often qualified prospects to confusion and uncertainty instead than a typical community of widely shared truths. The ensuing states of polarization and radicalization that routinely reveal themselves in the world are concurrently alarming and inspiring to the artist.

“I maintain asking myself how can I, as an artist, mediate involving the require for an intimate sensory encounter and the ambition to have interaction with the enormity of the globe?” Drummen shares. “Some realities are so urgent at this moment, that I want to testify to them in my do the job. I also ponder: can a work of art be insanely disgusting and dazzlingly beautiful at the identical time, like a festering wound glistening beautifully in the sunlight?”

Susan Drummen continues to examine these concepts in each of her mesmerizing art installations. Her work will carry on to be on exhibit as aspect of Trailblazers right up until Oct 3. To maintain up with the artist’s most current jobs, you can check out her web site and stick to her on Instagram.

Dutch artist Suzan Drummen installed a dazzling carpet of jewels and gemstones in the Royal Palace Amsterdam.

The fluorescent colors of the bejeweled art installation are meant to clash with the much more sober shades of the regal salon.

Present-day princess/former Queen Beatrix with the artist. (Picture: Jeroen van der Meyde, Royal Palace Amsterdam)

Dutch King Willem Alexander standing with the artist. (Photograph: Jeroen van der Meyde, Royal Palace Amsterdam)

Suzan Drummen: Web site | Instagram | Facebook
Royal Palace Amsterdam: Website | Instagram | Fb | Twitter

My Modern-day Achieved granted authorization to function photographs by Suzan Drummen.

Similar Content:

Upcycling Artist Turns Damaged Glass Bottles Into Stunning “Gemstone” Rings

Filmmaker Captures Wonderful Development of Enormous Flower Carpet in Brussels

Clever Rotating Mirror Installation Reflects Diverse Sights of Venice’s Doge’s Palace

Ethereal Set up Reimagines the Back garden of Eden as a Crystalline Wonderland