Zero Waste Beest
Lies Hoefkens
Lier
About
I obtained a bachelor's degree in fashion technology and run my own sewing studio alongside that. From my love for fabrics, patterns, leather, and used materials, I try to build up my artistic practice.
In my work, I often start from materials that already carry a story with them. These can be textile remnants, pieces of leather, or objects that have lost their original function. I use the materials within painting, assemblages, and textile sculptures. Sometimes these materials literally become the canvas, but sometimes they are also processed as material into something new.
My technical background can still be very clearly found in my work, although I consciously try to create tension with it. I am interested in moments when control falls away and the work takes its own direction. Chance encounters, conversations, or materials that cross my path often help determine the outcome of my projects. Through this way of working, space emerges for forms and images that I could not have thought of beforehand myself.
Reuse is also an important part of my practice. Coming from my background in the textile sector, which is one of the most polluting sectors, I am strongly aware of the problem surrounding textile waste. I like to work with materials 'discarded' by the industry that I want to give new life within the art world. Traces of wear or previous functions may remain visible and thus become part of the work.
Project
From a frustration with the waste mountain of the textile sector, I work with leftover materials from my own sewing studio.
For this project I used a discarded leather car seat, which I completely took apart and reassembled into a fictional animal.
Each component was given a new place within the body.
In this way, the work explores the cycle of leather: from animal, to luxury product, to waste, and then brought back to life as a fictional animal.