How I refused a request and won an award instead. After the installation of the monumental light object

The apartment complex is called “de
SELECTION, CREATION AND TWO MUSEA
Meanwhile the committee had also asked designer Bart Vos to make a proposal. We both came up with the same analysis, but with a totally different interpretation. After offering my design it was the only one presented at the residents’ meeting and it was accepted with all votes but one from an anti royalist.
Then I asked hyper


Next were a model and a dress. The model came riding to the park adorned with a bandana, sunglasses and a lot of dangling hardware. We put her in the picture sitting at the table and then took her to the Fries Museum. She was dressed and coiffed by curator Gieneke Arnolli in a time piece and before our eyes her whole posture changed. This was also due to the molding of the dress. In those days a female piece of clothing forced you into a specific posture and it made her absolutely regal. We then took another picture of her sitting at the same table in front of a white wall.
Imagine this all took place in almost pre-digital times and it was one of the first prints of its kind by the Stork printer at the Textiel Museum. So Gerard and I drove to Tilburg to offer two color coded A4 pictures, made by an official art photographer, for scanning. No digital carrier was big enough yet to hold it and it could not be done by internet (this detail will come back in the second version). It took several test strips and prints to get it right. One print was interrupted close to the end due to a lack of ink and the restarting left a mark. Another print had the same problem when it was aborted because of a power shut down when the museum closed its doors for the night. The story about another print is funny but long. It was still a learning process. We were also evolving in taking pictures and storing them…. All the material on Gerard’s computer got lost in a crash, including the work in progress pictures and the model.
ARCHITECTURE AND AWARD
The building was created by the architectural firm of Abe Bonnema and they were pleased with the end result. They thought it was a much needed addition to their design. The opening was grand and as a result of the appreciation of the residents EMMA won the Public Audience Award and it also gained a Jury Mention at the Frisian Design Awards.

REQUEST FOR A REPRINT TURNING INTO REMAKE
Fourteen years later I was given a second commission to re-create EMMA. I had just visited her with a film crew who were recording several pieces of my work for Irish national television. The production team all loved EMMA best….
I gladly accepted the commission, but who would have figured I had to reconstruct EMMA almost from scratch…. When I tried to get her reprinted at the TextielMuseum they told me they had deleted all the files going back 10 years. Fortunately, the photographer was able to produce the original but discolored slides. These were converted to a digital file, but a lot of “information” was lost. All in all 5 experts added their expertise and one of my assistants has been Photoshopping for a whole day to fill in the white spots. And I still wasn’t satisfied with the end result. Then I asked Gerard Boersma to do a final touch and after I added one more color correction it was to my liking. The print is perfectly done at Print Unlimited and after removing and re-tacking her with around 2000 staples EMMA is restored back to life again.

