News

The World of Carpets, Magical and Highly Creative

THE NETHERLANDS -- Welcome to the world of carpets! It can be unusual, challenging, fanciful and highly creative.

In the past, carpets were associated with wealth, class and prosperity, because of the tremendous amount of time and efforts needed to produce them.  Nowadays, they are part of almost every home’s interior design and bring a sense of aesthetics and style into offices and houses. 

Through the modern prism of three talented artists, Stijn van der Vleuten, Bob Waardenbeurg and Marcia Nolte, carpets are another form of contemporary art.  With their keen eye for style and design, the three artists have united their forces into a creative initiative called ‘’WE MAKE CARPETS’’. The project focuses on the presentation of sophisticated mosaics of unconventional materials such as chocolates, pasta, spices, plasters, cotton balls, flower petals and coffee cups.

Stylish, colorful and extravagant, the carpets of the Dutch trio symbolize the blend of traditional forms and eccentric ideas. From afar, theses unique mosaics look like simple domestic carpets. Once observers get closer to them, they will notice that they are masterful expressions of modern art concepts.

Take a look at the carpets’ plethora of sizes, forms and designs, and you will discover the world of opulence, creativity and imagination. The ideas are experimental, challenging, elegant or kitsch: CandyBar Carpet, Army Carpet and Pasta Carpet are just a few of the projects that play with the notions of proportion, style and design.  The trio has also used buttons and pegs (as seen in photo 1) to create fascinating graphic ornaments that awe the observer with their astonishing color combinations.  One of the trio’s most astonishing projects was created for the Glow Festival in the Netherlands. The Glow Carpet, made up of 750 kilogram pebble stones with the special ability to shine in the dark, impresses the viewer with its almost unreal luminescent look at night. (as seen in photo 2)

Check out the Bottle Carpet specifically designed for the Taragalte Festival 2012 and set against the spectacular background of Morocco’s Sahara desert, and you will get immediately enchanted by the intricate art object comprised of numerous plastic bottles of various forms and colors. (as seen in photo 3) Cheap plastic forks have been successfully implemented for the creation of an amazing artsy scheme of colors and figures. The Army Carpet is another impressive work of art which consists of groups of plastic soldiers of two different colors: cream and dark-blue. The plastic figurines  have been arranged in a fascinating network of shapes and sizes, and allure observers for more careful exploration. The Dutch trio have experimented bravely with matches and sponges, bringing the world of art and domesticity into a whimsical whole.  The three artists have also created ‘a delicious’ ornament of candy bars (The Candybar Carpet) which looks like a ‘real’ carpet from the distance. (as seen in photo 4) Another spectacular project is the wall-sized Cocktail Carpet which is an avant-garde mix of sparkles, colors, forms and patterns. (as seen in photo 5)

‘’WE MAKE CARPETS’’ explores the fascinating world of carpets and presents them as decorative elements, artsy ornaments and a source of inspiration. The more you explore them, the more enchanted you get!

All photos courtesy of WE MAKE CARPETS