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Christien Meindertsma thoroughly explores the life of products and raw materials in her work. In some instances, the result of her projects may be the record of a process itself. In others, her investigations lead to commercial products. Careful investigation and documentation, themes of local production and underexplored resources characterise her work. Meindertsma seeks to reveal processes that have become distant in industrialisation and encourage a deeper understanding of the materials and products that surround us.

Meindertsma’s first work was a book called Checked Baggage (2004): Meindertsma purchased a container filled with a week's worth of objects confiscated at security checkpoints in Schiphol Airport. She meticulously categorised and photographed all 3267 items. Later, her book; PIG 05049 (2007), documented all the products made from a single pig. Meindertsma explored the connection between raw materials and the everyday products that surround us, revealing a network between source and consumer that has become increasingly invisible. Another documentary project; Bottom Ash Observatory (2015),  involved Meindertsma sifting through a bucket of Incinerator Bottom Ash - a plentiful and until recently unvalued by-product of the large scale incineration of household waste - to reveal and present the precious materials within. 

Works such as the Flax Project (2012), and its numerous offshoots, are also typical of Meindertsma’s approach: Meindertsma purchased an entire harvest of a dutch flax farmer with the ambition of exploring how flax products might stay more locally produced.  Commissioners have invited Meindertsma to turn her particularly investigative method of design and documentation onto a specific subject matter, subsequently Meindertsma has produced works that explore such wide-ranging subjects as Forestry in the Flevopolder region in the Netherlands, the relationship between Japanese porcelain and Dutch linen and the landscape of northern Canada.

Meindertsma’s work is in the collection of MOMA (New York), The Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and the Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rein). She won three Dutch Design Awards (2008) as well as an Index award (2009) for PIG 05049. The Flax Chair won the Dutch Design Award and Future Award (2016). Meindertsma graduated from the Eindhoven Design Academy in 2003.

1980: born in Utrecht
1992 – 1998: Koningin Wilhelmina College, Culemborg, VWO
1998 – 2003: Design Academy Eindhoven, Het Atelier

2023

Re-forming waste – Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Onder de Wol – Cuypershuis, Roermond
The Product Chronicles – DDW, Eindhoven
Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design, MOMA, New York
white heart – Allard Pierson, Amsterdam
Objects of Change, Depot Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam 
In vitro, Bureau Europa, Maastricht

2022
De Zachte Stad, DDW, Eindhoven  
Fertile Grounds, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

2021
Another Crossing, Fuller craft museum, Plymouth US
Design for The Earthshot Prize Award, the first ceremony in London
Long Live Fashion, Textile Museum, Tilburg
Sharing Elements, ambassador project for DDW, Eindhoven

2020
Voor de Vorm - Season 2- De Haaien/ NTR 
Journey of a sheep’s fleece, Van Abbe Museum
Another Crossing, The Box, Plymouth
Off- Cut collection, t.e.
Bulb Bullee, collection of lamps, t.e.

2019
Renoleum, Forbo
Everything Connects, solo,  Art Institute Chicago
Broken Nature, Triennale di MIlano, Milan
Flax Fields, CSrugs, Milan
Acoustic Fur, collection MOMA
Flax Chair, collection V&A

2018
Beneath the Surface, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
Voor de Vorm, De Haaien/ NTR
Linen Bienale, Flax Chair/Donegal tweed, Lisburn
Room on the Roof, Bijenkorf, Amsterdam
Acoustic Fur, Really/ Kvadrat, Milan

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2017
Change the System, Flax chair, Fibre Market/ Donegal tweed, Rotterdam
A Single sample, Really/Kvadrat, Milan
Pigeon Service/Canvas, Kvadrat, London
No worry doll, Return to Sender, Amsterdam 

2016
Fear and Love, the Design Museum, London
Project Rotterdam, Poetsdoek, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Safe and Sound, Mudac, Lausanne
Switch Dutch design on the move, Textielmuseum, Tilburg
Arita 2016, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

2015
Tree Track, Andriese.Eyck galerie, Amsterdam
Design Derby - Nederland - België, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Bottom Ash Observatory, t.e., Spazio Rossana Orlandi, Milan
Flax Chair, Label Breed, Milan
How We Work, Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch
The Fab Mind, 21 21, Tokyo
Harrie Tillieprijs, Cuypershuis, Roermond
Berlage, godfather of dutch design, Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam

2014
Pigeon Service, Texture, Kortrijk
Threads, Museum Arnhem, Arnhem
Mansholt, Landschap in perspectief, Bureau Europa, Maastricht
Traces, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam

2013
WIT, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam
Self Unself, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Handmade, Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Beelden op de Berg, Arboretum Belmonte, Wageningen
VLAS kavel Gz 59 - west, Vlasmuseum/Buda, Kortrijk

2012
Christien Meindertsma Solo, Audax Textielmuseum, Tilburg
VLAS kavel Gz 59 - west, Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg
Designs of the Year 2012, Design Museum, London
Ah wat lief, Villa Zebra, Rotterdam
De Nederlandse identiteit? De Kracht van Heden, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere

2011
49 PRAIRIE PLANTS, Design for a Living World, TNC, Fieldmuseum, Chicago
OAK INSIDE, t.e., Spazio Rossana Orlandi, Milan
Tree Track, Radio Kootwijk, Radio Kootwijk
Power of Making, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Talk to Me, MOMA, New York
VLAS kavel Gz 59 - west, Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg

2010
Why Design Now? Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
Action! Design Over Time, MOMA, New York
Biennale Internationale Design, Saint-Etienne
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year, Design Museum, London
Een mooi ding, Museum Hilversum, Hilversum
DNKTNK, Fort Asperen, Acquoy
reTHINK!, Audax Textielmuseum, Tilburg
Dutch Domestics - Design as Research, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt
Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design, The Art Institute of Chicago

2009
Design for the Living World, TNC, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
Felt exhibition, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
Super Stories, Design Biënale, Hasselt
Knitted Worlds, Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg
Makers & Spectators, MU, Eindhoven
Foodprint, STROOM, Den Haag
Farmer in search of style, Designhuis, Eindhoven
Pioneers of Change, Gouvernors Island, New York
Rotterdam Design Awards, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

2008
PIG 05049, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, solo
PIG 05049, KKoutlet, London, solo
A touch of green, Droog Design, Milaan
Nest, Centrum voor Beeldende Kunst, Apeldoorn
Marlies Dekkers retrospective, Kunsthal, Rotterdam
Libraries of Light,Victoria & Albert Museum, London

2007
Evolution Revolution: The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textile, RISD Museum, Providence
The family of form, Designhuis Eindhoven
Eigentijds, Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn
PIG 05049, Published by FLOCKS, Rotterdam

2006
BLACK SHEEP, Kakitsubata gallery, Tokyo
G*E*B*O*R*B*U*U*R*D, Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg
Post.doc,Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki
Ideal House Joris Laarman, rug made of 18 merinosheep , International Furniture Fair, Keulen
Cut for Purpose, group project, Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

2005
FLOCKS, launch, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, New York, solo
Dutch Mountains, MU, Eindhoven
A World Under Stress, Festival of Photography Rencontres d’Arles, Arles
Traces and Omens, Noorderlicht, Groningen
Value for Money, Droog Design, Milaan
Dutch Village, Weiss Gallery, New York
Dutch at the edge of Design, Fashion Institute, New York

2004
CHECKED BAGGAGE/ 3264 prohibited items, Published by Soeps , Eindhoven
Dangerous Goods, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, solo
Non-Conform, Centum Beeldende Kunst, Emmen
Talente, Internationalen Handwerksmesse, Munchen
WORKBABY Galleries, Amsterdam/Antwerpen/Berlijn, solo
Improvvisare DAE, group project, Chelsea Hotel, New York