DOMOTEX SURREALISM


SURREALISM IS A MERGING OF THE ABSURD WITH OUR


REALITY IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT DELIVERS AN UNEXPECTED DOSE OF OPTIMISM. RECENT YEARS HAVE SEEN A LOT OF ABSURDITY


Ken Fulk | AD100 designer


Ken Fulk, fresh from unveiling The Surreal World fabric collection for Pierre Frey, described surrealism as “a merging of the absurd with our reality in such a way that it delivers an unexpected dose of optimism”. He argued at the time that the previous few years had seen what he described as “a lot of absurdity and sometimes not enough optimism”. The movement has also inspired a new wave of fl oor coverings such as a textile range by Australia’s Tsar Carpets, similarly designed to off er what they describe as “otherworldly escapism”. Their Chromatic collection features six carpets with a variety of


patterns which mimic the fl uid lines of fl owing water and dancing fl ames to the fl oating ribbons of the northern lights. Their New York- based designer Andrew Cenita explained the concept: “My objective was to create a visually-intriguing collection that elicits a sense of elation and happiness, off ering an aspirational escape from the current state of the world.” Many are featured here on these pages. The company points out that all designs are available in a wide variety of colour gradients, which can be customised to suit individual spaces and even act as wayfi nding systems and signposts for social distancing, even in high- footfall hospitality spaces such as hotels or offi ce spaces. Surrealism was part of the artistic avant-garde movement that began


in Paris in the early twentieth century, producing an array of works as unnerving as they were illogical. It enjoyed a moment of revival in the late ’60s and then again in the ’70s and has, to a large extent, remained in the background ever since, coming back strongly at odd moments when its presence was seemingly required. Its debut in the interiors space was in many ways, inevitable, bringing


everything from the playful to the far-fetched and downright mind- boggling in design, colour and texture, something Breton in his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto described as “pure psychic automatism”. Modern artists have incorporated the genre in a variety of ways. Azerbaijan’s Faig Ahmed has used it to give a twist to ancient carpet-weaving techniques; incorporating surreal weavings in traditional oriental


QUO TE


rugs. A typical creation is one in which a traditional weave becomes distorted as it progresses so that the end result looks, as described by the online magazine Awesomebyte, as if the pattern has “melted and oozed into a puddle”.


Writer Deepak Mehla explains


that his surrealist sculptural textiles “encompass psychedelic visual manipulations”. These are the result of “a large repertoire of techniques, including glitching, pixelating, warping, and unravelling that he infuses in traditional oriental rugs”. Then there are the unique creations of Odabashian, one of the oldest rug companies within the Americas, known for the sort of creative collaborations that conspire to mix traditional weaving techniques with bold and innovative designs to create modern geometric rugs capable of optical illusions reminiscent of surrealist and cubist artworks. None


of this should be surprising. Part of the remit of a traditional rug is not just to add coziness and warmth but to create a style, a mood and even make a statement. There are many things that defi ne Surrealism, such as the ability to shock, with the likes of unexpected visual juxtapositions and elements of non sequitur, while artists committed to the genre see a greater importance in their work as a physical expression of a philosophical movement.


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DOMOTEX MAGAZINE


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