The Art of Living Together

From digital design to tactile tapestry

Tjitske visually translated a specific symbiotic relationship into the design 'Sunbirds & Tropical Flowers 2.0'. More than 100 digital images and photos are mixed and adjusted into a bursting composition of flowers, plants and birds, intermingling and blossoming in perfect harmony. The interaction between different species is emphasized through the correlation of the geometric and the organic, the abstract and the detailed, and the digital and the tactile. Dissimilar worlds that smoothly collide, interact and enforce each other. For this tapestry Tjitske collaborated with EE Exclusives, who translated the design with great precision and eye for detail into a jacquard tapestry. Three other tapestries from ‘The Art of Living Together’ collection are presented at Isola Design Gallery, location Pennings Foundation.

What is symbiosis?

'Symbiosis' is one of the major forces behind evolution where animals, plants, fungi and organisms cooperate to survive by the means of contributing to each other’s support. This close relationship between two species often has a long history of interdependent co-evolution. 'Mutualism' is the collaboration between dissimilar species, where both species are mutually benefiting and neither can survive without the other. 'Commensalism' is the association between dissimilar species, where one species is benefiting while the other species is neither benefited nor harmed.

'Sunbirds & Tropical Flowers 2.0'

Most tropical flowers are colourful and have long tubular calyx full of sugary nectar. These plants have customized and adjusted their shape and size for the beaks of local sunbirds, to be exclusively available for them. Sunbirds also feed on all the insects that visit the flower, and this helps in protecting the flower from being eaten: mutualism.