- Playing with the illusion of recognition. The garments feature prints that evoke a sense of elusiveness, as if they could vanish at any moment. They are exaggerated interpretations of online imagery depicting liminal spaces. They capture the surreal and eerie essence that I find fascinating. Each look possesses a distinctive element that you can’t fully get a grasp on, yet somehow feels familiar and can even evoke some sort of lost memory. It feels as if every garment is a fusion of multiple influences, reflecting and interacting with one another. The collection unveils a gateway to an atmosphere that embodies clarity within the ambiguous nature of existence.
This concept is further integrated into my artistic process, as I work within a digital environment, which itself resembles a liminal space. Digital images morph into prints, which then manifest as physical garments. These designs then undergo further transformation within 2D/3D software programs, leading to new design ideas. It's a constant loop of back-and-forth exploration. The end result is a collection of physical garments that retain a digital essence, evident in their reflective, immersive, and saturated prints.
Artist statement
André Konings is a Utrecht-based artist who creates in-between worlds where he embraces the unreachable. Through the realm of fashion design, he creates physical and digital garments with graphic prints that contribute to his visual universe, forming an alluring visual language where aesthetics are central.
Inspired by liminal spaces, the online world, evolution, and the unconscious mind, he immerses himself in a constant cycle of liminal spaces, whether they are online, physical spaces, or within a constant dream state. The garments he creates are hybrid forms of everything he observes around him. You cannot fully get a grasp on what you see. As if you take a look of a memory from a dream you had a while ago. With his collection he opens a portal into an atmosphere where the lines between reality and fantasy become fluid.
This integration is reflected in his work ethic, as he works and experiments in between the physical and digital realms. Throughout the process, the experiments travel through these mediums, where the physical work is captured and modified in a digital environment. Working in between 2D and 3D, the physical outcomes always bear a synthetic digital presence.
Ambitions
In the coming years I would like to find my role in the fashion-art world. In the form of my own studio/label. Alongside that I would maybe work in the design department of a brand to gain more experience, as I learn new things and meet people.
Eventually I would like to do a masters-degree in fashion design abroad, possibly in London.
Learned during the studies
The most important thing I learned at the academy is to trust my intuition. Especially in the first year of the course I had a hard time explaining my work to my tutors as I struggled finding the right words for it. After the very first design assessment one tutor told me that it's okay if you don't always have the words to explain your work, because the work itself already communicates visually.
After realising that I put more trust into my intuition as I led it during my process. From then on I started the process always with imagery and a certain fascination/feeling instead of an academic research. I firmly believe that humans are emotional creatures at nature, who can experience and feel complex things that might can not always be fully be grasped in words. Allowing myself to communicate with myself visually during the process I developed my own visual language.
List of publications / exhibitions / prices / concerts / shows etc.
-Fashion installation ''Harmonic Convergence'' at Gallery AG Utrecht (2022)
-Graduation work at group exhibition ''Leegte'' at Gallery FRAME Amersfoort (2023)
André Konings