On September 2, 2020, Dutch collective DRIFT and Avant Arte, the world’s largest online community of art lovers, will launch a new edition entitled ANOTHER FUTURE.
Combining real dandelions and LED lights, the artworks tell the story of two distinct worlds – nature and technology – harmonising and becoming one.
Founded in 2007 by Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) DRIFT is now a multi-disciplinary team of 64. DRIFT manifests the phenomena and hidden properties of nature with the use of technology.
Their work has been exhibited worldwide, including at: Victoria & Albert Museum (2009, 2015); Met Museum (2010); Stedelijk Museum (2018); UTA Artist Space (2019); Garage Museum (2019); Mint Museum (2019); Biennale di Venezia (2015); Pace Gallery (2017) amongst others.
ANOTHER FUTURE is a perfect model of this philosophy, marrying skilful sensitivity to material with powerful conceptual meaning.
For DRIFT, the dandelion as an object has been a starting point for much creative exploration. Gordijn and Nauta have been picking the flower for many years, enriching and evolving their understanding of its extraordinary natural architecture.
Lonneke Gordijn, DRIFT, tells us:
“After 15 years of studying dandelions, I saw so much cleverness in this plant, that doesn’t have a central brain. There is so much tactility. Somehow this plant feels its environment and is aware of it, in a completely different way than how humans and animals think. I could talk for hours about dandelions.”
ANOTHER FUTURE embodies the dandelion’s beautiful juxtaposition of strength and fragility, softness and energy. With both depth and simplicity, this piece illuminates parallels between man-made and natural structures through deconstructive and innovative processes.
In this piece, after picking and selecting each flower, it is reconstructed by hand, seed by seed, around an LED bulb. Through this method the artists raise fundamental questions about what life is – by learning from the Earth’s underlying mechanisms, the work highlights an essential need to re-establish our connection to it.
Ralph Nauta, DRIFT, tells us:
“Nature is our past, present and future. Technology is an extension of Nature and should only be used to connect humanity to Nature, not to disconnect.”
Avant Arte is the biggest community of young art lovers online, with over two million followers on Instagram, the majority of whom are under 35. They collaborate with artists like Jenny Holzer, Claire Tabouret, Cai Guo-Qiang, James Jean, and the Chapman brothers, selling limited edition sculptures, printsand unique works on paper in order to turn that community into the next generation of collectors.
Christian Luiten, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Avant Arte, said:
“After all the years of working on editions, this is the first time we have collaborated with an artist from our home country which makes it especially exciting. DRIFT’s artworks and projects have fascinated us for many years now and so it’s really exciting to work with them on ANOTHER FUTURE. In such a fast-paced world, and especially right now, it feels essential that we slow down occasionally and look back to nature and think about how nature and technology could work together. I think this piece speaks that message beautifully.”
Another Future consists of nine dandelights made from real dandelion seeds, hand-picked, and glued seed– by–seed to LED lights. An edition of 50, it is made from conductive print, dandelion seeds, LEDs & plexiglass. Includes a USB-C cable and a location-specific plug.
With their works often selling out in seconds, Avant Arte’s vision is to make art radically more accessible for a whole generation.
For more information visit:
www.avantarte.com | Instagram: @avant.arte | www.studiodrift.com
