Holistic production cycles bring living material narratives to light. In this way, materials become journalistic expressions of their own evolution.
Reintroducing rarefied haptic experiences, Jongstra's artworks provide humble encounters with natural materials and processes to foster an empathetic connection with the natural world.
People used to be able to feel the quality of wool between their fingers and understand its material properties through sensory experience. The textured knowledge - tacit knowledge - present in each fleece from our flock of 250 rare indigenous Drenthe Heath sheep also revitalizes an ancient connection with tactile sensibilities. 
Fifteen years of collaborative research into the process of cultivating and extracting natural pigments remains in constant symbiosis with the seasonally harvested biodynamic botanics from the research garden at Farm of the World.

Studio Claudy Jongstra in collaboration with Google, Reddymade Architecture & Design, Muuto Design, International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Brain Science Institute, created a specially commissioned artwork: a panoramic woolen tapestry of 16m x 1.30m for one of the three rooms in the multitudinous installation at Spazio Maiocchi, Salone del Mobile 2019. Each room has a different design theme, with its own colors, textures, sounds, and scents. Guests are given a custom-made wearable band and sent off to traverse and experience three rooms. The band measures their physical response, such as their heart rate and skin temperature. As the experience comes to an end, visitors receive a personalized analysis elucidating which room made them feel calm and at ease. A Space For Being examines what neuroaesthetics—the study of how the brain responds to art—says about the effect of art and design on our physical health and mental wellbeing.

Raw wool rugs with refined references to the classic Hermès silk scarves. The rugs showcase how natural materials can be incorporated into our daily lives through values and crafts passed down by generations of artisans. The installation features wool dyed with indigo, walnut, and logwood sustainably harvested from Farm of the World with recipes authentic to Dutch cultural heritage. The installation was displayed during Manifesta Biennal 12 in Hermès Palermo, Sicily, Italy, June - November 2018 in collaboration with Past Forward / Villa Valguarnera for Hermès exploring our shared commitment to the potential of natural, sustainable resources. 

Scarves: 90 x 90 cm | Rugs 1.4 x 2 m

For Restaurant Mokum NYC on Amsterdam Avenue Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra, recently named Visual Artist of the Year 2019, created Botanical Fresco. Mokum - from the Yiddish for place or safe haven, in The Netherlands the slang word for the city of Amsterdam - is an all-day cultural restaurant serving healthy, delicious, farm-to-table based dishes. A haven of warm hospitality on a busy day in the city offering internationally inspired dishes that are sourced locally.
In line with the truthful origin of ingredients Botanical Fresco serves up a landscape equally appealing to the senses, in which a lush palette of color from plant pigments constitutes each individual botanical portrait on the wall.
Tacit knowledge of natural dye recipes and techniques passed down for centuries are required to bring out the vibrant colorful riches hidden in nature. From the crops of Claudy’s small-scale organic farm, De Kreake in Friesland the comforting, healing, soothing, inspiring and vital pigments are brought to the table as if they were drawn from a previously hidden landscape. Each leaf, root, skin or shell from the madder, the woad, onion or walnut offers their warm golds, deep blues, soft pink tones or sky greys. Together making a bold contribution to the scene and embodying a graceful declaration of its significance to Dutch cultural heritage straight from the famous painters of the Golden Age.
Botanical Fresco is felted in silk, mohair, linen and an abundance of wool from the Drenthe Heath Sheep, the fiber that forms the vibrant basis of most of Jongstra’s monumental works of art. As in all her enterprises, Claudy Jongstra aims to contribute to preserving the rich natural world and enhancing biodiversity while creating meaningful and charismatic works of art. Early on, 25 years ago she realized the connection between the shepherd and his herd of grazing sheep and the important survival of the Dutch heathlands in the north. As with the initiative to propagate a variety of plant crops for pigments, giving a new use and value to the Drenthe Heath Sheep’s wool, thanks to the endeavors of Studio Claudy Jongstra a major impulse was given to the preservation of biodiversity in the agricultural northern provinces.

The mural Botanical Fresco was commissioned by Matthew Baird Architects.