Maria Blaisse, the Emergence of Form

The Emergence of Form is the first retrospective publication on Dutch designer and artist Maria Blaisse (born 1944). Since 1970, Blaisse has worked with various media, including textiles, to create designs and installations that are both sculptural and costume-like. The Emergence of Form is a publication about design. It concerns the necessity of producing exactly the right form, just as in nature. A look at the evolution in the oeuvre of Maria Blaisse allows us to visually follow how one form, as it were, emerges from another. Maria Blaisse has been creating designs since 1970. She taught textile design for 17 years at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, starting in 1974, and is currently an international visiting professor. In this publication Maria Blaisse discusses her in-depth research into form in various materials and the numerous application possibilities, both autonomous and product-oriented. This idiom of form is examined from various perspectives from other disciplines. With contributions by fashion designer Issey Miyake, architect Trude Hooykaas, dancer Kenzo Kusuda, writer Oek de Jong, cartoonist Joost Swarte and cellist Frances-Marie Uitti.