Using black paint on glass and a sharp nib pen, illustrator Floor Rieder scratches her worlds into view layer by layer. Wherever she scratches, light appears. From Saturday 21 March her work will be on view in the exhibition Scratch, scratch, scratch at the Kunsthal. Her illustrations for new editions of the classics Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan will be on display, and visitors of all ages can get to work themselves.
Rieder’s work is immediately recognisable, powerful and graphic, and at the same time fairytale-like and full of surprising details. She paints glass plates completely black and first works out her compositions carefully. Then the scratching begins: line by line she removes the paint and in this way brings light into the image. The strong black-and-white contrast forms the basis of her visual language, after which she digitally adds colour for extra atmosphere and depth. Rieder gives classic stories a contemporary appearance, such as Peter Pan who appears in a hoodie.
Scratch yourself
In the exhibition you can follow this process up close. Original glass plates show how an image grows, sketches show how ideas arise and dummies show how the illustrations ultimately form a book together. In addition, you can get to work yourself: try out the scratching technique, make your own illustration and discover how light brings an image to life. You can design a map of your own Neverland, project figures from Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland and use a discovery map to search for small, surprising details in the space!
Floor Rieder
Floor Rieder (1985, Zwolle) studied Illustration at ArtEZ in Zwolle. In 2013 she broke through with her illustrations for The Mystery of Everything That Lives by Jan Paul Schutten, for which she received, among other awards, a Silver and a Golden Brush. Since then she has illustrated classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and built up a broad oeuvre: from journalistic reportages for, among others, De Volkskrant to wall paintings and sets for theatre and television.
