Contemporary Ceramic Furniture, Table, 2020, Rutger de Regt, the Netherlands

RUTGER DE REGT is born in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands 1979. For Rutger, design is experimenting with new materials by a hands-on approach. In this way he allows technique and material to engage in a dialogue wherefrom his designs come to life. His aim is to reclaim industrial production techniques to be able to produce products by setting his own restrictions instead of industrial. Artist, inventor, sculptor, collector, curator from the Netherlands BALLOON SCULPTING PIONEER Human beings impose all kinds of restrictions which form different social structures, conventions, beliefs and identity. My fascination for these influences and the adaptiveness we possess as human beings, inspired me to translate these forces into a process, which enables me to physically manipulate an object during the moulding process. My first collection ‘The Happy Misfits’ initiated the beginning of a decade of research and experimentation with the concept ‘manipulating the skin’. This concept resulted in an intuitive sculpting method, where the skin and body is represented by a balloon filled with industrial granules, while the balloon, function as a skin, the industrial granules support and hold the skin to create a malleable artificial body. Direct physical impositions of the hands, body and disposables used as tools, are reflected in the artificial body. The characteristics of the industrial granules are used to preserve this sensory moment in time. resulted in an expanding family of misfits