In her work Desirée Hammen combines haute couture techniques with her own DIY skills, exploring the beauty of imperfection. Her work is being described as ‘poetic, chaotic, intense and playful’. With her indoor and outdoor installations she is disrupting reality in a gentle way. With her handmade one-of-a-kind clothings she is stressing the personality of the person who is wearing it. Over the last years Desirée Hammen participated in exhibitions and projects in Amsterdam, New York and Shanghai, some under her own name, some with the collective Painted. Her cardigans are on sale in a store in New York, under the name ‘ikdesiree as a robin’. Desiree Hammen: "It all started with a single sequin from my sewing-package of the second module that I took, november 2010 at L’école Lesage in Paris: “J'adore cette paillette, elle me calme et donc me donne de l'énergie, elle est rose, elle est mate, elle est transparente et peut-être de temps en temps elle est agaçante. Elle me demande attention et elle est transformative. Je la trouve pure, je la trouve à la fois ancienne et nouvelle, sereine, intéressante, inspirante - Elle est très spéciale.. elle porte mon cœur." Intrigued by the sequin, it’s color shape and qualities, slowly my entire world coloured pink, as in a lucid dream. At Salon/2 I will exhibit the installation ‘How the world slowly started to turn pink’ (2007-2011). It’s the second time I show this installation and this time my pink world has expanded with a new embroidery and a wrapped up plant.
In the process of making the embroidery I used some of the haute couture techniques I learned at Lesage. I used them in a traditional and non-traditional way as well. The pink sequin was the starting point. Besides the pink installation I exhibit an embroidery in progress in the window of the shop. This might be the next extension of my pink world". Desiree Hammen - 2011
Desirée Hammen (34) graduated at Artez Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, 2003. She works as a fashion designer/artist in her hometown Eindhoven, and in her part-time domicile Paris. Desirée’s current work consists of a series of free-knit cardigans, installations and autonomous embroideries, her speciality. She is about to finish her training at the famous Ecole Lesage in Paris (thanks to a grant of Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds).
pictures by Marij Rynja
