How Aldo Bakker's ambiguous designs merge sculpture and function

The work of Dutch designer Aldo Bakker defies convention: eschewing the immediate, traditional functionality of design objects, his pieces are sculptural in scope and largely abstract. In a new solo exhibition, Bakker returns to Amsterdam's Looiersgracht 60 (the setting for his 2015 show, Containing Content) to present a new body of work titled Strangely Familiar (on view until 23 December 2026).

'In Strangely Familiar, objects enter fully into their own terms, liberating themselves entirely from questions of functionality and conditions of legitimacy,' reads a text introducing the works. 'Scale becomes a means of release. In a carefully balanced performance, forces of line, mass, colour and texture gradually assert themselves into being with greater autonomy, eventually entering into dialogue with their environment.'

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, Nick Vinson spoke to Bakker about his relationship with materials and how his forms are conceived

Strangely Familiar: an interview with Aldo Bakker

Nick Vinson: What was the starting point for the show?

Aldo Bakker: As this is a multidisciplinary space, I had the freedom to select a body of work and to do the scenography as I have in mind. So I can make a artistic statement.

NV: The show is curated by Soraya Notoadikusumo and Nadine Snijders – what kind of dialog did you have, and how did that shape the show?

AB: We know each other quite well, as we did our first show together 10 years ago. And that was Containing Content, where only five pouring vessels were presented in this space in such a way that the sculptural side of those objects was already present.

And this time, 10 years later, I had this big wish to emphasise the sculpture side of the oeuvre. And with the galleries we are working with, it was always a choice. It's either pieces need a function, and if they do not have a function, we should go towards the art rules. Well, it is my big wish that the works are staying together, as they are, they complement each other. And there's not so much of a division of the sculpture works or the functional works: they blend, they merge. It's more about ambiguity in this sense.

NV: Aluminium, plaster, urushi, grey quartzite, belge noir, Humber brown limestone – how essential is material to you?

AB: It becomes essential along the way, as it becomes an intensive dialogue. I decide on a material, but this doesn't mean that this particular creation stays in that material.

For example for the 6prts bench, right from the start, I had this particular material in mind, the Grey Quartzite. Because it almost doesn't have veins. It's a very quiet, monotone kind of thing.

NV: Can you elaborate on the choice of stone? You seem to favour heavy mass.

AB: Grey Quartzite, I believe it fits very well, for Six Parts. I like to see the different components that were needed to make this composition; if this was a very rich, decorative kind of stone, it would stand in the way.

NV: The stone pieces in particular have a very tactile quality can you talk about the finishes.

AB: All the pieces are finished by hand, with very fine pieces of stone with diamond inside. You need the diamond, because the surface is very hard.

NV: Convex meets concave, right angles meeting curves – how do you create these extraordinary shapes? Do you draw, or do you model first?

AB: I keep them in my mind for a very long time, and then I started imagining them. And when that feeling becomes solid, trustworthy, then I start to draw it. And that's only the front view side view, top view; and that is the moment where I confront myself with that image that I had in my mind all the time. And then I also see the difficulties, and sometimes I discover that it's not finished yet, or it is not good at all.

NV: Looking at Sitting Table, it’s a challenge to understand the origins of your forms. I look at it from the back, it's completely flat, and then from the top it has a 90 degree angle. And then if I was to try to understand how that arrived, I wouldn't even really understand how to begin.

AB: The logic of this piece is that it has an outside and an inside. The outside has three different platforms. The top, which is not a circle, but a kind of regular form, and the bottom which is an elongated form and is separating in two parts. On the inside, it all comes together every time at a single point.

NV: What was the first one made of?

AB: Wood, and you could see the joints, that was called Anura. That was for Wallpaper * Handmade in 2012, that was the first one, the original.

NV: You collaborate with makers, who you always credit. How does working with them affect the process and final result?

AB: I think, uh, the longest working relation here is with Frans Ottink, who made the plaster version of Grin. I think we have worked together for 15 or 20 years. We did many pieces together, so when I give him the drawing, he immediately knows what's important, what cannot change, or what is maybe possible to change

It's the same with Pier Luigi Testi for the stone, and Sergej Kirilove for the Urushi. With Testi, we went to visit him two weeks ago, and he told us that he learned a lot from the collaboration with me. And this is essential, otherwise it doesn't work, because I'm asking a lot.

NV: Your works are often interlocking elements of the same material, why does this appeal to you

AB: With 6prts, it's a reaction to architecture, where you have examples of beautiful stones being composed, but then there's some kind of a material in between to make them connect, like cheating. Well, it doesn't work, because that material in between, it is of a lesser quality, it doesn't endure as the stone does. And so at the beginning it's all neat and in place, but over time, you see that the differences are too big.

And that has become my challenge. How can I make a composition where all the forms are done in such a way that nothing else is needed anymore? And it took a little while to get there, but this, this is purely what it is.

NV: This is the first time I have seen you work in textile. Tell me about the work in silk, and how you achieved a micro embroidery in split threads

AB: It was an invitation from Neooold a collective started by a former student in China. His name is Min, and he came in contact with one of the biggest silk suppliers we have in the world. They work in the classical and traditional way of embroidery, but what is different is that normally, you apply this on a canvas with a bird or a flower, and then the rest is not embroidery. In this case, everything is embroidered, so the whole piece is embroidery.

Strangely Familiar by Aldo Bakker is on view at until 23 December 2026 at Looiersgracht 60, 1016 VT Amsterdam