Desiree de Baar

textiel , Soft sculptures , natuur , installatie , Ecologie , cross-over , Artistiek onderzoek

Desiree de Baar (1972) studied Fine Art at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Over the years her artistic focus has been on the use of textiles and techniques of craft, exploring topics related to the position of women in various settings and moments in history, often taking architecture as a starting point. Making life-size mock-ups in knitting or scaled models in wool felt, playing with perception and shifting meanings through material.
Recent shifts in her practice explore themes around ecology and our relation to the environment, using gardening as a tool.

**Gunnera Tinctoria #2** - Gunnera Tinctoria is an ongoing project, started in 2025. I am looking into the notions of the so called ‘invasive species’, taking the ‘Unielijst Invasieve Soorten’ as a starting point. By exploring and portraying the different plants on the list and I show different ways looking at these plants. For now, I have focused on the Gunnera Tinctoria (portraying them in various ways) as I have always been impressed by this plant; it’s shape and size. I want to question our relationship to nature and the consequences of our acts as humans. I am exploring the connections between (plant)science, policy and emotion through stories or migration, the utility, threat and beauty.

**Gunnera Tinctoria #3** - Gunnera Tinctoria is an ongoing project, started in 2025. I am looking into the notions of the so called ‘invasive species’, taking the ‘Unielijst Invasieve Soorten’ as a starting point. By exploring and portraying the different plants on the list and I show different ways looking at these plants. For now, I have focused on the Gunnera Tinctoria (portraying them in various ways) as I have always been impressed by this plant; it’s shape and size. I want to question our relationship to nature and the consequences of our acts as humans. I am exploring the connections between (plant)science, policy and emotion through stories or migration, the utility, threat and beauty.

**Beans, 2021** - Mijn werk is gekrompen tot een boon. Ik wilde de aarde terugbrengen naar een vrouwenhand. Ingegeven door de wetenschap dat we met een opschaling en efficiëntie te veel van de aarde vragen. En een besef dat een paar duizend jaren geleden de kennis van de aarde en het bewerken daarvan veelal bij de vrouwen lag. Feminiene kwaliteiten als zorg, openheid, gelijkwaardigheid liggen verscholen in deze ‘hand-held objects’.

**Maria Sibylla** - 2021, This work is about artist-explorer Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Known for her work Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium (1705). Her story touches on the history of colonialism and indigenous knowledge of plants as well as feminism. The project consists of an embroidered portrait of Maria Sibylla and a series of leaves made of fabric. The Leaves of Merian are reconstructed based on her illustrations in the Metamorphosis book.

**Shells_Oranjemolen 1:6, 2012** - 'Shells' is a series of felt models. These scale models are based on different types of underground bunkers used in second world war as part of the 'Atlantic Wall'. Already as a child I was fascinated by these concrete structures in the landscape, that you could sometimes play in. In my work I revisited these sites by observing them in a detailed way and reconstructing them in soft fabric. I focused on the inner rooms - the way body's lived in them - instead of the concrete volumes. The surface of the inner rooms is made soft as a vulnerable skin. The enclosed rooms seem to offer comfort.

**Tomelilla (detail), 2017** - Series of felt models Project about the monastery Mariavall in Tomelilla (Sw), by architect Dom Hans van der Laan. A series of privat rooms, reconstructed as felt models. Repetition reflected in form.

Observation post, life-size knitwork — **Observation post** - Observation post (Observatiepost, 2010) is a life size copy of an observational post in Kathmandu, Nepal, made from knit work. During a visit to Nepal in 2009 I captured this small scale architectural structure; photographed and measured, which I later recreated in knitted wool. This small building was used to guard the royal palace and was also used as a place for men gathering. By recreating it in wool I wanted to transform the building, bringing it to a woman's hand and question the position of power and observation.

**She disappeared...** - This work was made in 2023 as a site-specific installation for the Koornmarktspoort -Stedelijk Museum Kampen (NL). I was able to use the tower of the gate (the oldest gate to the city) to create a work. I combined several myths and stories of woman and captivity; the fairy tale of Rapunsel (Grimm), the life of Jacoba van Beieren - whose (alleged) braided hair is kept in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The title and theme of the ladders are taken from a work by Louise Bourgeois; He Disappeared into Complete Silence.

Deze kunstenaar heeft nog geen toekenningen.