Ronald van der Kemp show’s notes were so concise, they bordered on the lapidary. They read: “The Reset. A happening. Aware. Artful. Artisanal. Disarming. Intimate. Nostalgic. Hopeful.” A sort of economy of words abundant in concepts. The presentation-cum-performance, held at the Atelier Néerlandais, was a crowded, exuberant, high-vibrational affair, with ready-made installations, clothes suspended in mid-air or hung on walls as if they were artworks, and the RVDK posse of friends and family parading around swathed in his sustainable, upcycled, hyperbolic concoctions. It was intoxicating.
Floating around the rooms, whiffs of The Mind Vaccine, the new fragrance just launched by the designer in collaboration with Dutch company Salle Privée, added further intoxicating notes. “I’d like people to take The Mind Vaccine and press the reset button,” enthused RVDK, only half joking. The scent is quite classic, softly spicy with natural ingredients coming mostly from recycling processes. “It reminds me of home, of my mother’s cooking, so it’s quite a sentimental thing,” said Van der Kemp. He added: “This collection is made with love, I believe we should make things that feel embracing and loving and comforting.”
RVDK’s practice is inspired by the people he meets and involves in his projects via elective affinities; he has no structured team, rather he operates surrounded by a sort of osmotic, elastic creative organism with plastic artistic capabilities. The handsome collection he showcased featured creations, all rigorously made from upcycled or recycled materials, born out of layers of collective contributions. Wildly imaginative, thought-provoking and sentimental, there was method to the madness. There was generosity and artistry in abundance—and no small amount of love.
