As an art form, rug making began as a functional necessity, but has at different points in time served as a powerful storytelling and creative channel - one that transcended language to document personal and cultural stories over centuries.
A vast spectrum exists within the medium itself with regard to styles, techniques, histories and materials, and this diversity and richness has paved the way for limitless artistic expression, most recently celebrated in the design world by Woven Forms.
A collaboration between R & Company and Milan-based carpet producer Amini, the collection, brought to SA by Southern Guild gallery, explores the creative scope inherent in the complex and highly skilled world of rug making.
Commissioning 10 designers from around the world to work within textile traditions, but also to explore and execute their own ideas, R & Company and Amini sought to create a collection of challenging and exciting work.
The limited-edition designs took numerous skilled weavers around six months each to execute and pushed the boundaries of the medium, resulting in unique designs that reflect each artist's individual style and vision.
"Having no experience in carpet-making opened up endless possibilities for designers. Without previous knowledge of the process, they were not tethered by any limits normally associated with the craft," says Evan Snyderman, co-founder of R & Company. "With Woven Forms, we wanted to break from the standard process of turning existing works by famous artists into carpets."
Instead they asked the designers to challenge their own practices and create new works with wool and silk as their tools.
Derived from a series of small paintings, Wendell Castle's perception-challenging carpets feature masterful "brush strokes" that blend hundreds of colours together into patterns only a handful of skilled weavers are able to achieve.
The Haas Brothers - multitalented creative chameleons Nikolai and Simon - created a tongue-in-cheek take on animal skins of long-extinct creatures, a challenge for the craftspeople who knotted the complex patterns and colours into animal shapes. With their comical names and exuberant colours, the pieces channel the brothers' signature celebration of the fantastical and flamboyant.
David Wiseman's exploration of patterns and motifs brought an unmatched level of detail. "Animals have always played an important part in my process of conceiving imagined realities. For me, they are muses, opening up the possibilities for a view of nature in which trees, streams and clouds converge into patterns, forms and colours," he says.
Katie Stout's design seeks to "re-see" nature in its disorderly beauty. A collage of watercolour and crayon drawings of mutated fruits was translated into a work alive with energy. "Since the dawn of home decor, Western civilisation has invited nature indoors. All too often though, it is trapped in sensible and pleasing patterns. Manic Botanic seeks to free floral patterns from preconceived notions of taste and allow them to feel wild," she explains.
Dana Barnes's fascination with the history of Persian rugs and how identity and history are woven into the intricate carpets led her to explore this tension. Having a loose and unstructured style herself, Barnes took ornate carpets and felting interventions onto the surfaces to create abstract paintings of soft wool. Her intention is that "the process serves in some way to liberate the Persian from its formulaic and highly structured original format, creating a sort of adaptation from its original story".
• Woven Forms will be on show at Southern Guild in the Silo District until the end of 2018...