Gijs Hennen (NL, artist/designer) creates large-scale installations by combining and orchestrating existing devices and machines. In doing so, he explores factory environments and industrial techniques, showing that functionality can possess its own form of beauty.
His work focuses on the influence of human systems and our relationship with machines and industry. He investigates how people navigate an increasingly industrialized landscape. As a maker, Gijs moves between the worlds of art and product design.
In the work ROTO P1, he explored the technique of rotational molding. For this process, he uses an old gas tank as a mold. The mold is placed inside an installation that creates both rotating and rocking movements. Through this combined motion, the polypropylene (PP) material can move three-dimensionally through the mold. Under the influence of heat, the material melts and adheres to the inner surface of the mold.
The entire production process takes about one hour, including cooling of the mold. The spherical form is then further processed into a lamp. By adjusting variables such as temperature and rotation or processing time, different surface structures and textures can be created.
