The piece 5xWP is rooted in the work of Wilhelm Poetter, a little-known Modernist designer whose graphic precision intrigued van Beek. The title refers to five of Poetter’s drawings that the artist discovered in the Wolfsonian collection and fused into a single textile pattern. Examined individually, the drawings reveal recurring shapes and angles—variations that seem to echo one another. For van Beek, this resemblance suggested a hidden order, one that only became visible through recombination.

As the design took form, it began to resemble the visual rupture of a computer glitch—an uncanny anticipation of digital aesthetics decades before the invention of the computer itself. “Does the graphics card work in the same way as Poetter’s grid?” van Beek asks. The work points to a universal language of form that transcends technology and civilizations, a system that repeats and reconfigures across time.

5xWP was developed in three different executions—mechanically woven in cotton, polyester, and as a handwoven tapestry—each revealing the specific limitations and expressive qualities of its medium. Shown side by side, the variations open a spectrum of possibilities within a single design.

The piece was first exhibited in 2022 as part of Bas van Beek: Shameless at The Wolfsonian Museum–FIU, Miami Beach.