Denim diaries

Sahil Harilal: Your art has a wonderful sense of rebellion, witty and humorous in nature — how important is humour in conveying a message about sustainability?

Maarten Baas: To answer a question seriously about humour is rather humorous in itself, don’t you think?

In general, I have a tendency toward humour; even if I look at the art in my own home, there’s always a certain light-heartedness to it. I think it can give relevance to heavier subjects, and can act as a mirror for us to ask the question, “Can we see ourselves here?” The duality of flying to Milan to talk about sustainability! Apart from that, it can make people smile, exhale, and relieve stress from certain subjects.

SH: What does it mean to work with a company whose philosophy is encapsulated by “The Art of Denim”? What common sensibilities do your art and G-Star RAW share?

MB: “The Art of Denim” already tells me that they approach denim from an artistic perspective. G-Star RAW has a history of collaborations with very good artists, and I wanted to be part of this lineage of other artists I admire. Their product, denim jeans — everybody wears it, everyone loves it, young and old, men and women, everybody can wear jeans, [they’re] very accessible and democratic — that’s something G-Star RAW and I have in common. I don’t want to make abstract art, I also strive to make my work accessible.

SH: In the “More or Less” exhibition, the dichotomy of the “desire for more and the need for less” is examined, which echoes the foundations of the “slow fashion” movement (abandoning trends in favour of garments created to last decades). How can slow-fashion principles be applied to art or how we consume art?

MB: For me as an artist, that’s not a subject. I see it as my job as an artist to make an artistic statement about things, in this case about working with denim. I know G-Star RAW places a lot of emphasis on denim conservation and repair, but I don’t see that as my task to think about.

SH: In your graduation project “Where There’s Smoke”, beauty is found in transformation, from an item’s original, perfect state to a new (still recognisable) burnt state. How did you adapt the themes of transformation and metamorphosis in the “More or Less” exhibition?

MB: It is also a take on “less is more”. Everyone knows this slogan and I like to play with that by saying “More or Less”. It is, of course, the transformation of jeans — it started out as jeans and ended up as granulated board material, out of which I made [a] jean shape, in which you can store your jeans (again). We’ve come full circle, we started with jeans and ended with a jean shape — that echoes “Where There’s Smoke”, in which a recognisable shape is reappropriated.

SH: The “Carapace” series is a wonderful allegory for clothing; “a patchwork of hard skin protecting a soft body” and “protection in harmony with the beautiful”. How did working on this series help you to conceptualise pieces for “More or Less”?

MB: [In reference to the denim-covered plane] Indeed, it became sort of a second skin, this patchwork of differently coloured jeans. Technically, the “Carapace” series was made with patchwork and little studs. In this case, the nails refer to jeans and to an airplane, as airplanes are also made with those little nails, so it can apply to both worlds, really.

g-star.com/en_za / maartenbaas.com

• From the July edition of Wanted, 2023.