Joana Schneider

Joana Schneider was born in the Netherlands and is based in Amsterdam. She builds her language from rope, working with salvaged materials from the fishing industry—industrial netting and marine debris—transforming them into sculptural environments that entwine the natural with the fictional. Her work opens a dialogue between nature, the human body, and childhood memory, examining how perception is shaped by material and myth. Through embroidery, passementerie, and dolly knotting, Schneider creates forms that hover between object and ecosystem. They appear grown rather than made—organic, irregular, and charged with use. Rooted in Dutch craft yet resisting tradition, her practice favors scale and improvisation. “The visual aesthetics of nature are my main inspiration and a constant reference in my work,” she says. “I’m especially drawn to fractal patterns and their flow and evolving forms. Through repeated actions, form unfolds gradually—each repetition offers something new.” For Side Hustle, Schneider developed a series of oversized wall hangings. They nod to the logic of nets while embodying the theatricality and ceremony of myth. Gold and silver threads knot into sinuous structures that seem in constant flux—at once protective and permeable, functional and fantastical. In their shifting presence, the natural crosses into ritual, and the familiar acquires the aura of transformation.