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Jólan van der Wiel jolanvanderwiel.com

Tropic City

By 06-06-2017

At the beginning of March Jólan van der Wiel presented ‘Tropic City’ in Het Scheepvaartmuseum (The National Maritime Museum) in Amsterdam. Out of curiosity about the extreme conditions caused by global warming, Van der Wiel performs experiments with the aim of creating the tropical city of his fantasy.

Sources of inspiration are, for instance, the various layers of the jungle vegetation, the oppressive heat, and the ways in which fruits and insects protect themselves with prickly skins, camouflage or, contrarily, bright, toxic colors.

Van der Wiel translated these characteristics into various designs for objects and installations. The scale of the objects is inspired by the strikingly large dimensions of leaves, flowers and trees in the tropical rainforest. 

‘Tropic City’ is the first part of ‘Odd Environments’, a series within which Jólan van der Wiel each year familiarizes himself with a new, unique environment for which he develops special materials and shapes.