Roderick van Hasselt & Majke Luthi: Drop by Drop

Drop by Drop is a collaboration between screen print artist Roderick van Hasselt and word artist Majke Lüthi, and acts as a celebration of their friendship. Twenty years after they both attended a black and white photography course at the University Cultural Center in Groningen, The Netherlands, Majke asked Roderick to contribute a fitting image to one of her poems. As Poet Golightly, Majke uses various techniques to transfer her poems into art pieces, often in collaboration with others. Roderick is currently working as a marine pilot in the port of Rotterdam, and he in turn requested a nautical theme to work with as most of his screen prints feature nautical details which he spots while at work.

Majke had recently written a poem about sea scouts that she had spotted sailing on a lake close to Rotterdam. Before Roderick visited Majke at her home, the pair were a little clueless about what the final image could look like. The dreamy poem also references a bathtub, and coincidentally, some years ago, Majke had bought an old French bathtub, which she put in her garden. She describes; “It seemed quite logical to both of us that the bathtub would become part of the art piece. A funny moment arose when I proposed to Roderick: So I guess I shall start writing the poem on the tub?, and he nodded, as if it was a normal thing to do. That’s so nice about working together with a friend: the creativity seems to arise and flow quite naturally.”

The final photo that the duo selected is as dreamlike as the poem, perhaps suggesting that the person who is mentioned in the poem might be part of a daydream. After the sunny photoshoot, Roderick digitally edited the picture ready to be translated into a screen print. “We considered digitally adding a mast on the bathtub and placing it on a lake, but in the end we kept it simple and again drew attention to the dreamy theme by adding the water-like reflection below the image,” says Majke.

Finally, Roderick and Majke went to Mesh Print Club in Rotterdam together and selected vivid colours to bring the print to life; fluorescent pink and orange for the glow, and metallic inks to get the mirror-like effect of water.

After the success of their first collaboration the pair are now working on a Riso print (it does not contain a bathtub).

Drop by Drop
from my luscious foaming bath
I witnessed the way of
sailing sea scouts
in a lake nearby
drop by drop, I counted heads
boats and masts
heard their sails shake in the wind
and as I sank deeper in the warm water
I wondered…
who would be the one to determine their course
my toes stumbled upon your chest while doing so
you then followed my gaze outside
and predicted:
they will be tacking soon.

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