Cocky Eek
A History of Inflatables
Capacity is limited. Seats are offered on a first come, first served basis.
Sphæræ is the result of Cocky Eek’s ongoing research into pneumatics. She has been greatly inspired by such diverse fields as biology, technology, cooking, fashion, and many others. Over the years she has collected as selection of interesting bubbles, blobs and spheres, ranging from NASA technology, to sauna shorts or even an inflatable duck recipe. She will present her research into these various architectural forms, creatures, and phenomena during AxS | Curiosity.
Cocky Eek studied Fashion Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts 1989-1993 and graduated with a final collection ‘Fashion is So Ugly You Have to Change it Every Half Year’ [MA]. Her wearable collections are amongst presented at Le Salon des Jeunes Stylistes – Hyeres and Moda Mas – Amsterdam. Since 2001, Cocky Eek is an active member of FoAM (Bruxelles) where in close relation with scientists, technicians and media designers she did the spatial designs for responsive environments as: Tgarden presented at V2 -Rotterdam and Ars Electronica Festival – Linz 2001, TxOom shown in Greath Yarmouth – UK 2002, and TRG presented at Maribor- Slovenia 2005.
Since the millennium her work has been mainly revolving around lightweight spatial compositions and her favorite media are wind and air. This resulted in floating or flying experiments or large, voluminous pneumatic forms constructed to capture air. She creates environments that translate this material into a tangible experience of form and volume. In 2005 she co-founded FoAM (Amsterdam) whose main focus has been the topic of human-plant inter-relationships. Boskoi, an ongoing project on mobile urban foraging, presented at ISEA, New Mexico, 2012 received Ars Electronica’s Honorary Mention (2011). Together with Schweigman& she deepened the qualities of air resulting in the concept and spatial-design of theatrical-art productions; Frame (presented in Shanghai, CN, 2012) and Blaas touring in the EU. Besides her artistic practice she is a staff member and heading the Tactile Research Lab at the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Conservatoire and Arts Academy in The Hague, NL.
Cocky Eek is currently an artist-in-residence at Guesthaus in Los Angeles, California.
SPHAERAE is an inflatable pavilion — a component of an ongoing strand of research by architect Eek into the pneumatology and tactility of inflatables and lightweight spaces. Developed in partnership with Synergetica Lab in Amsterdam and the Artscience Interfaculty program in The Hague, SPHAERAE consists of five semi-transparent bubbles of different sizes, which together form a multi-dome construction designed for immersive, synaesthetic experience.
Image Credit (top to bottom):
Marit Folstad, Blow Up #1
1999 Video
TRT: 13 min. 29 sec.
From the exhibition Thin Skin: The Fickle Nature of Bubbles, Spheres, and Inflatable Structures
AXA Gallery, January 30-April 13, 2002
Theo Botschuiver & Jeffrey Shaw, Airground
1968