Turkish Red
Textiel Museum Tilburg, 2013
In 2013, the Textiel Museum1 in Tilburg commissioned five designers to create a new body of work inspired by the collection of the Museum.
Exploring the archive, Formafantasma was drawn to the so – called Driessen collection. This collection was donated by one of the members of the Driessen family to the Textiel Museum following the end of the cotton printing company LKM2 (Leidsche Katoen Maatschappij). The collection consists of a large series of textile – related books, notebooks, material samples, and printing experimentations collected by various generations of Driessen family members and colourists working for the company. The vast number of collected colour tests and recipes testify to the transition between the use of natural pigments and synthetic ones.
In this respect, the investigation into Turkish or madder Red by Felix Driessen is particularly relevant. The so – called Turkish Red is a vibrant tone of red sourced from madder roots and is one of the most researched colours in the history of textile. First developed in India and expanding later to Greece and Turkey, its bright tones have intrigued different cultures, thus becoming one of the first examples of globalization. Drawing inspiration both from the Driessen collection and the history of Turkish Red, Formafantasma designed a series of seventeen silk textiles that are dyed with madder roots, in collaboration with a German colourist.
The silks feature patterns derived from Driessen’s books and other visual elements as a reference to the history of Turkish Red. Traditional design elements such as colour and texture are used as tools to both testify to the work of the Driessen family and to evoke the symbolic, economic and social impact of Turkish Red in history: from the Roman Empire through the French Revolution until the chemical synthesis of alizarin, one of the main dyes obtainable from madder roots. The title of the project, BTMM1514, refers to how books are numbered in the Museum’s archive: the 17 silks are indeed designed as the pages of a book with a front and a back cover.
