Oriental rugs are all about detail – but not in itself; rather, details are the basis for repetitive patterns that form whole impressions. One creator remixes this small-but-large tradition with modern Google Earth imagery.

Drawn to aerial views of strange-shaped cities from strangely decentralized Los Angeles to strip-centric Las Vegas, German designer David Hanauer bends and reflects urban plans in his textile creations.

As with traditional variants, there is often a central feature and then a series of radial and bilateral symmetries that quickly get the mind thinking more in terms of carpets than cities.

With only minor modifications to what he finds, these collages sometimes even include a piece of the (watermark) word ‘Google’ and rarely involve radical altercations – they simply reflect and transpose original pictures in a new context.

“Worldwide Carpets refer to aerial photographs as they are presented by
software programs on the internet. From the abundance of pictures which virtually depict the globe and trace entire city structures in detail, the designer picks views from certain cities always referring to architecture and their city planning. As different levels of pattern appear – depending on the viewers point of view – the once chosen structure dissolves towards a disruption of its context and transfers the original photograph into a pattern.”

“David Hanauer takes up the ornament structures of Persian carpets for the composition of his patterns, while referring to recurring motives and patterns. The different scaled and imprinted carpets can be used individually or serially as floor covering.The designer documents the specific forms of existing city planning with the bird‘s eye view. Based on the generated vocabulary of forms, while also modifying the template, David Hanauer ties on the traditional ways of figurative story telling with the carpet being the image carrier.”

“WorldWide Carpets are not only everyday objects: they do as well report about the contemporary human being who is using the carpet.”