PYRAMIDS OF MAKKUM | ALEXANDER VAN SLOBBE

The Royal Tichelaar Makkum’s complex restoration of a seventeenth-century flower pyramid, one of the most prized pieces in the Rijksmuseum, prompted it to assign the 2008 project Pyramids of Makkum to four designers with whom the company felt it had a very close relationship.

Alexander van Slobbe was asked to come up with a contemporary response to the flower tower. They had to keep to the idea of an ‘ornamental vase’ and stay within the dimensions of the original flower tower. The designers were at liberty to include any aspect of the historical context or tower they so desired.

‘Only when I approached the flower pyramid as a body, with feet and a head, did I realise how I could, as a fashion designer, participate in this community. The idea of a body helped me to get it right: I wanted a clear structure, with a base and a top, and I wanted to use various elements from the world of fashion. My vase is in fact a pile of quotations and elements, which call up fantasies of femininity, although of course it can take the odd tulip as well. The first part is a little stool, a reference to Rietveld and Dutch modernism: the last part is a bow that, like a little crown, keeps all the elements together. In between we’ll find a classic wash basin, a hand mirror and a mulberry box with a couture dress from Orson+Bordil hidden inside, a series of little perfume bottles, and an enlarged cream jar filled with Makkum clay. My vase is not primarily intended to carry that 17th century symbol of affluence, a tulip; rather it is the carrier of an idea; an outrageously luxurious wrapping of an idea called fashion’ – Alexander van Slobbe.

© Blommers & Schumm, Studio Marten Aukes

Additional information
ARTIST Royal Tichelaar Makkum
SERIES Pyramids of Makkum
DIMENSIONS 160 x 50 x 50 cm, 63 × 19.7 × 19.7 in
EDITION 7 + 2 AP
MATERIALS Earthenware
PRICE $ 85,500
YEAR 2008
PROOF OF AUTHENTICITY Certificate
AVAILABILITY Directly Available