JULES VISSERS | TAFTIQUE

JULES VISSERS | TAFTIQUE

“I am inspired by nature, the classical art surrounding me here in Florence, and by artistic movements of the first part of the 20th century, such as Cubism and Art Deco.”

Jules Vissers is a Dutch artist living in Italy. Vissers translates an old tradition into modern artworks. Her art pays homage to nature using only natural yarns, and these are derived from recycled fibers. She has lived in Italy since 1998 and graduated “Cum Laude” in Art Textiles at the Florence Art Academy. Her tactile works are inspired by nature, art, and unique Florence’s cultural atmosphere, urban, and landscape, where she works and lives.

Vissers has a textile studio called Taftique in the city’s historical center. Here she creates hand-tufted and embroidered wall hangings and art textiles in the form of decorative cushions and centerpieces. She is very fond of some early 20th-century artistic movements, such as Cubism and Art Deco. Vissers is mainly inspired by the works of Sonia Delaunay, the famous painter and textile artist.
In her work, Vissers often uses complementary colors and curved geometric forms, and she aims to explore the interaction between different textures and their three-dimensional effects. Her unique artistic style is on the boundaries between abstract and figurative. She gives a playful and intimate scene with a somewhat mythological allure. She explicitly explores the interaction between textural elements and their three-dimensional impact in her pure abstract works.

Jules Vissers views her art practice as a passe-partout, a universal language everyone can access and enjoy, and she aims to make our living surroundings more playful and durable. Her idea is to sparkle people’s imagination through visual and sensory experiences with textile materials. With her work, Jules artistically uses yarn as if it was her painting colors, focusing on different perceptions and applications of art textiles compared to other types of art or design.
For her, it is essential to make people aware that you can create beauty with materials already used for other purposes or that would otherwise remain deadstock. Using recycled and deadstock yarns is a way to upcycle materials as art pieces in a completely new form.
For her artworks and art textiles, Jules uses local, high-quality yarns and searches for recycled yarns and deadstock materials in the nearby textile district of Prato, a city in Tuscany that specializes in recycling textile waste and deadstock fabrics, and various factories have small remaining amounts of great-quality yarns available that would otherwise stay unused.

Exhibitions & Awards | 2022

In May 2022, Jules won the second prize at the Tamara de Lempicka Awards in Venice for her artworks ‘Female Figure,’ ‘Pine Trees in the Sun,’ and ‘Lost in Thought.’ She also won the ‘International Art Critics Award’ for ‘Female Figure’ at the Chianciano Biennale in August 2022.
In September 2022, Jules exposed her work ‘Peace, Please!’ at Palazzo Pallavicini in Bologna, Italy. This work was selected as a finalist for the first edition of the Pallavicini Art Prize. The artwork was made in response to the war in Ukraine and inspired by a Renaissance sculpture of a praying man at Palazzo Bardini in Florence.
At the last Florence Biennale in October 2021, an International Jury assigned Jules the Lorenzo il Magnifico Award, 4th place category textile art, for her textile artwork ‘Three Graces,’ inspired by the three women-goddesses from the famous Botticelli painting ‘La Primavera.’

Getting To Know: Jules Vissers

Art Market Magazine: Please share the background of your artistic journey. Did you grow up in a creative environment? What led you into the contemporary art field as a professional artist?

Jules Vissers: I originally come from the Netherlands, and I have been living in Italy since 1998. I come from a family of sportspeople, but my mother has always dedicated herself to various creative activities in her spare time, such as painting and sculpting. She certainly influenced me in this.
I have always been susceptible to beautiful things and the creative process behind them. Although I had different office jobs in the first part of my life, I, too, have always cultivated artistic activities taking drawing, painting, and textile classes.
At a certain point in my life, I realized that I needed to express my creative inner self and have something special to give to this world. I quit my job and applied to the Florence Fine Art Academy for a Master’s in Art Textiles. In Italy, artisan craftsmanship is of paramount importance. I collaborated with several specialist workshops during my training, such as the Fondazione Arte Della Seta Lisio in Florence.
In January 2021, I started my own atelier Taftique in the historical center of Florence. Here I design and produce contemporary textile wall art and textile art objects, tufted and embroidered by hand on cloth.

Art Market Magazine: Where your inspiration comes from? Would you say that your art is influenced by other artists or a specific art field?

Jules Vissers: I am inspired by nature, the classical art surrounding me here in Florence, and by artistic movements of the first part of the 20th century, such as cubism and art deco. I am particularly inspired by the works of Sonia Delaunay, who managed to create paintings and textile artworks of incredible color intensity. To me, my yarns are like my painting colors. I often use complementary colors and curved geometric forms, and I like to explore the interaction between different textures and their three-dimensional effects, using varying yarn heights, pile types, and combining heterogeneous yarn types.
I have developed my unique style between abstract and figurative works in my artistic journey.
In the latter ones, I like to evoke playful and intimate scenes with a somewhat mythological allure. In my pure abstract works, there is a more explicit exploration of the varying textures and their three-dimensional effect.

Art Market Magazine: Let’s talk about your unique technique. Please tell us about the entire work process, from the step of the idea until the final outcome.

Jules Vissers: I mainly use tufting (‘taftare’ in Italian), so I invented the name ‘Taftique’ for my atelier. With this manual technique, I can make specific scenes and patterns come to life, and it allows me to create relief, height differences, and textures, making my works exciting and caress able. In between the tufted areas, I often also use various embroidery and knitting techniques.

What does ‘tufting’ mean? Literally, it means inserting the yarn from the back of the cloth e make it appear on the other side. How it appears on the front side, that is, its length and thickness, depends on the measure of the needle used and the type of yarn knot. If the yarn is cut during the tufting process, the yarn will appear straight. If it isn’t cut, the yarn will appear curved since it goes back into the cloth to make another turn.

To create a hand-tufted artwork, first, you need to create a design on the cloth and divide it into different sections corresponding to the different colors of mixtures of colors. I first start my designs manually, but I sometimes also digitalize them to easily see possible variations. I then transfer my designs on my frames to be tufted.
After that, the actual tufting process can begin: the yarn elements are inserted into the back of the cloth utilizing a tufting gun. I use manual as well as electrical machines as well as air-compressed ones. After tufting, the yarn is forever captured into the cloth by a latex or natural glue layer. After that, the pieces must be refinished and ‘sculptured’ using scissors, razors, and carving apparel.

Art Market Magazine: From your personal journey in the art field, what will be your advice to the young artist looking for a way of development?

Jules Vissers: If you want to explore your creative self, it’s good to experiment with various fields and techniques to understand which one(s) most inspires you. What’s important is that you show perseverance and that you keep proposing your work in different ways. You will hear many ‘no’s,’ but eventually, you will find your way.

Art Market Magazine: What’s the future hold? Any special exhibitions in the upcoming months?

Jules Vissers: In the upcoming months, I will participate in various collective contemporary art exhibitions. The first will be ‘Towers, Castles, and Glimpses of Tuscany, at Meleto Castle in the Chianti area, from June 17 till July 17. Then from July 22 until August 15, I will have my own pop-up store at the Art Festival’ La Via dell’Arte’ in Camaiore on the Tuscan sea-side. I will be part of the exhibition ‘Matter and Virtuosity’ at the Corsini Gardens in Florence during the artisan festival ‘Artigianato e Palazzo’ (15-17 September). From October 6 till the end of the month, I will exhibit in Siena at the Museum S.Maria della Scala at the collective exhibition ‘Horses in Art.’ Furthermore, I am among the finalists of the open call competition of the upcoming Florence Biennale (14-22 October), where I will exhibit my artwork, ‘Specular.’
After Florence Biennale, I will go to Eindhoven in the Netherlands to participate in the Dutch Design Week (21-29 October).

See the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #82