A seductively warm, earthy, and rosy world

‘In conversation with Suzanne Dikker’ - by Lotte Haagsma

A long row of fabric strips hang from the studio wall. They're dyed in soft, powdery pastel shades, some intense and earthy, some pale and diaphanous. Here and there you can distinguish the imprint of plants, the traces of a voyage of discovery made by Suzanne Dikker in recent years.

The journey started with a four-week artist residency at the Icelandic Textile Centre. After almost two years in which she had completely let go of designing, the desire to make had grown again, and she went out on a search for what form this new work should take. “I only wanted to add something valuable to the growing amounts of things we surround ourselves with.” Two weeks prior to the residency, Suzanne travelled around southern Iceland. “The volcanic landscape is breath-taking. Metals and minerals in the earth's surface create the most dynamic colour scheme, from blue-greys to ochres, and rusty reds amongst the remnants of snow, set against the contrasting dark blue seas and umber mountains.”

“My plan was to turn that landscape into a series of weavings made from self-dyed yarn, but I fell under the spell of dyeing and hardly got around to weaving.” In an old sheep barn, Suzanne spent her nights dyeing, with only music to keep her company, adjusting the proportions of pigments to create a wide variety of colours. Slowly but surely, these began to resemble the vivid Icelandic palette. In the attic of the residency, overlooking the nearby fjord, she eventually made one weaving. She experimented with threading the loom to create an uneven weave that gave the colours further depth.

“Back in the Netherlands I started experimenting with plant-based dyes, just with my own vegetable peelings and the weeds that grew around my studio in Rotterdam. Now, after more than two years of refining the recipes, I mainly work with avocado stones. Depending on the textile fibre, the pre-treatment, and the amounts of dye, you can play with the intensities to create beautiful shades of pink. Naturally dyed fabric keeps changing colour under the influence of light, sweat, and washing detergent - when it's worn, the garment becomes a living work of art.”

Suzanne occasionally posts impressions of her work online. Simple, pure, and at the same time rich in texture and tonal nuances, they create a seductively warm, earthy, and rosy world. “I've always strived for beauty,” she says. “A few years ago I developed a small collection of hand-dyed fabrics that referred to flower fields and landscapes. I approached the fabrics as a painting, from which I then made a garment. Creating something all by myself and allowing coincidence, that's what makes dyeing and handcraft so interesting.”

The English term 'textile artist' lends a more legitimate solidity to the practice than the Dutch textielkunstenaar, which evokes something more archaic or crafty. Still, Suzanne doesn't see herself purely as a fashion designer either; she pays a lot of attention to the fit of a design, but it is in the almost autonomous experiments with weaving, felting and dyeing techniques that she finds the essence of her work. Colour, material and form mesh together and develop from each other. Every step of the creative process is thought through, felt out, experienced and refined by her, from the carefully selected and processed raw materials to the final garment. The tactile quality of the materials - the softness, firmness, suppleness - everything has to be right so that she can determine where to give room to chance.

Gradually Suzanne has discovered how she wants to bring her work into the world - in a small-scale and dedicated way, with attention to the quality of material, colour and form. “I want to compose garments that are relevant for me as a designer, as well as cherished by the person to whom they belong. I design and give it form, then the wearer lives with it and new stories begin to emerge.”

Original text written in 2019 ‘Een verleidelijke, aardse en rozige wereld - In gesprek met Suzanne Dikker’ by Lotte Haagsma - link to Dutch original PDF - www.lottehaagsma.nl
English translation by Jack Eden - www.jackeden.art