Sunday Telegraph - Cut some rug
Cut some rug
With creative collaborations between makers and high profile fine artists, the rug has finally come of age.
Over the past 20 years the humble rug has undergone something of a renaissance. Whereas it once evoked antiquity and images of the souk, today it can be seen as an expression of modernity and a symbol of cultural nous. Key innovators have enlisted the creative talents from different design industries, so much so that when the age-old craft of rug making collides with modern design and contemporary art remarkable things happen.
Christopher Farr and his business partner Matthew Bourne can take credit for initiating this renaissance. When they established Christopher Farr in 1998, the pair said antique and tribal rugs with a smattering of modern designs created by the Slade and RCA-educated Farr. After holding an exhibition of rugs by RCA textiles students, Farr and Bourne not only saw the potential for selling more contemporary designs, but also that of collaborating with outside talent. Partnerships with fashion designers Rifat Ozbek and Romeo Gigli followed, and from there their catalogue of collaborations grew exponentially. Farr has spoken about the particular way hand-spun wool absorbs dye. 'It becomes saturated in an inconsistent way, like a great painting by Mark Rothko.' With this in mind, it makes sense that many of his partnerships have been with fine artists, including Gary Hume and Gavin Turk.
This transition from brush and canvas to the medium of weave and knot can be relatively straightforward for those accustomed to working in two dimensions. The angular patterns in abstract painter Sarah Morris's work translate well into her Midtown rug. The some can be said for Royal Academician Tony Bevan whose Rafters rug has the thick architectural lines that figure in his paintings.
Christopher and Suzanne Sharpe founded The Rug Company in 1997 and have also found huge international success through their collaborations. Many of these are with figures in the fashion world, from which concepts of colour, pattern and proportion are easily borrowed and applied. The first was Marni, who was followed by Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood and the Vogue stylist Lucinda Chambers. Later this year, the company is launching new designs by Alexander McQueen.
More daringly, The Rug Company has also worked with designers who are more accustomed to three-dimensional projects, such as architects - Rodolpho Dordoni - and furniture and product designers including Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Committee and Jaime Hayon. 'It's more of a challenge than working with fashion designers,' says Christopher. 'Product designers are used to working with synthetic materials that can be minutely altered or recast. But this is a handmade craft and not an exact art, so it takes a while for them to get used to that.' Sharpe sees his work as a type of mission: 'It's about looking forward. We're changing people's perspectives on rugs. And working with other designers is an important part of that.'
It's a philosophy that is shared by the Spanish designer and rug manufacturer Nani Marquina. She has collaborated with avant-garde Spanish graphic designer Javier Mariscal since she began in 1987. If I'm honest, I feel proud to have bet on young creators at the beginning of their careers,' she says. His other partners include product designers Ana Mir and Emili Padros, and the Dutch designer Tord Boontje, who created a felt petal-strewn rug called Little Field of Flowers. Later this year comes a range by the London-based Catalan designer Cristian Zuzunaga, a former RCA textiles graduate known for his digitised patterns. 'The collaborations feed us with new ideas and daring concepts,' says Marquina. And The Rug Company's Sharpe is equally enthusiastic. 'We just want to make interesting stuff that people haven't seen before by giving designers free reign to do something completely different to what they would normally do, you get that?'
