November 7 – December 22, 2019 and January 4 - 19, 2020 | November 7, 2019

MOVE ME/ TOUCHEZ MOI

Marjolein Dallinga

Artist Biography

Marjolein Dallinga was born in the Netherlands where she studied Fine Arts. She moved to Quebec, Canada, in 1989 to pursue her art career through making art books and jewelry. She discovered the craft of felting after her immigration. “I came to feel that felting was the medium most suitable for my artistic expression. Coming from a fine arts background I find the tension between the world of art and the world of craft very interesting.

For me, felting is not primarily about the techniques and trick of the craft but a medium of artistic expression, with the growing interest in fibre arts, I see this expression as a challenge to continue my moving from the traditional craft of felting to finding innovative ways to create “.

The world-renowned CIRQUE DU SOLEIL became interested in Marjolein’s work, and for years she has experimented with felt for their costume design while also creating final products for their shows. Besides costume design she creates large sculptures with wool which have been exposed in museums and galleries worldwide.
Marjolein has her own company, Bloomfelt.com, and works from her studio with sewing and dyeing rooms. She has taught felting workshops for fifteen years worldwide.

bloomfelt.com

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Exhibition Statement

For more than twenty years textile artist Marjolein Dellinga has been working with wool, wet felting sculptures and costumes that revel in the natural world. Dellinga’s career brought her from her birth place of Finland to Quebec where she has worked for Cirque De Soleil and exhibited world wide. The textiles in Move Me / Touchez Moi simultaneously obscure and reveal the human body, mimicking its natural make up in human sized and wearable sculptures. Her forms are inspired by sea creatures, plants, organs and cell structures, creating an interplay that makes alien what is terrestrial.  

The thick felt is worked by hand into stiff yet still soft shapes and textures that beg to be touched.  The work is deeply tactile and created through a rigorous process that Dellinga feels emotionally attached to saying “felting is not something I do but a place I want to go, a language of the imagination, a challenging craft to consume my anxious energy.” 

Acknowledgments

Published ©2021 by the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photography courtesy of the artist unless otherwise stated.