Ferdi's Wonderful Creatures

When I visited the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht last December, I suddenly found myself face to face with a truly fantastic creature. A gigantic insect stared at me, on the one hand giving me a sense of discomfort because of its enormous size, and on the other hand so enchanting due to its soft and colorful faux fur that I had to restrain myself from spontaneously hugging the sculpture.

The Damsel-Dragonfly from 1967 was created by Ferdi Tajiri-Jansen and belongs to her series Hortisculptures. This is a collection of monumental sculptures covered in brightly colored faux fur, designed in the period 1966–1969. The sculptures fit perfectly within the contemporary era of Pop Art and Flower Power, and their sensual natural forms are not only a tribute to the world of plants and insects, but also a celebration of female sexuality.

Ferdina Jansen was born in Arnhem in 1927 and moved to Paris in the 1950s, where she took sculpture lessons with Ossip Zadkine. Through the writer Simon Vinkenoog, she was introduced to the Japanese-American artist Shinkichi Tajiri. He taught her the technique of welding, which Ferdi began to apply in designing jewelry, bijoux en fer. These pieces often had shapes reminiscent of insects. Insects fascinated Ferdi because of their apparent contradiction: a symmetrical exterior but, inside, an apparent chaos of glands, nerves, and cells.
Ferdi's Wonderful Creatures

In 1965, she traveled through the United States and Mexico together with Tajiri, their two daughters, and two assistants. This journey would radically change her style and lay the foundation for her Hortisculptures. She began creating monumental flower forms in textile with a metal framework. The shapes were filled with foam rubber. The flowers were given tentacle-like extensions, giving them an almost predatory appearance. They seem to want to devour you, and yet you would rather do nothing more than disappear into them and end up in a soft, enclosed world.

Unfortunately, Ferdi’s Hortisculptures came to an early end due to her unexpected death at the age of just 42.

Ferdi, Damsel Dragonfly, 1967, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht

Original article in Dutch:
https://www.artemisomnibus.nl/blog/de-wonderlijke-wezens-van-ferdi