Rug Designs Inspired By Climate Change

AnnabelEmery — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:08:24 +0000

What is It?

Inspired by some of the natural phenomena caused by climate change — melting ice caps, evaporating lakes, wild weather forecasts, and seismic shifts in our ever-changing world — Brooklyn-born artist Fernando Mastrangelo has created a collection of luxury rugs called “Reverence,” which reflects the patterns of our beautiful planet, for well-known carpet retailers Edward Fields.

What’s the Concept Behind the Designs?

Featuring individual designs with names like “Melt,” “Crash,” and “Fracture,” Reverence is a “record of our times,” one inspired by worldly landscapes that crack, break, rupture, and swell. Mimicking physical changes that take place outside the realm of humanity, the collection of modern rugs showcases abstract and geometric patterns that mirror the natural world, embedding our geography into the very threads each rug.

Fusing natural imagery from landscapes like glacial plains and salt flats with textural compositions, these rugs are far more than simple decor pieces — they’re also art. They evoke a sense of realism through their watercolor palette, and the neutralization of their hand-crafted fibers blends seamlessly into an array of ombre hues.

The Designs

“Break 1” is made up of dominant lines that cut through marbled grey shapes, which are meant to represent the chunks of floating ice in the ocean that have begun to drift further away from the poles. Mostly blending together cool shades of blue and gray, the collection sticks to a subtle color scheme, though as you can see below in “Fracture 1,” soft pink is sometimes used to accentuate the otherwise grayscale designs. Several of these patterns have also been derived from real locations (for example, Yellowstone National Park‘s iconic travertine terraces and the salt flats in Utah).

For some added texture, the rugs have all been woven out of silk and wool yarns, and high shag has been interspersed amongst their low-pile sections in order to create a rigidity that mirrors that of earthy crevices. In “Arena 1,” (pictured below) the material is used to highlight the indentations left behind when water recedes from a particular terrain — marks and imprints that are sure to last several lifetimes.

Who Designed Them?

From blended silk and wool yarns to shag and edging, each fiber in the collection is meticulously crafted by the artisans at Edward Fields, though the concepts themselves were conceived of by Fernando Mastrangelo. As the great mind behind the project, Mastrangelo brings to these pieces the same considerate spirit that is usually found in his sculptural works.

The Reverence series also resembles some of Mastrangelo’s earlier work, particularly a collection of nature-inspired furniture he designed, in which colorful gradients were utilized to reflect (once again) the patterns found in natural environments. With that collection, Mastrangelo made it onto Dezeen’s “Ones to Watch” list. “Fade” was also showcased at New York Design Week in 2016.

“From the beginning, I wanted Reverence to articulate the visual language of nature and to convey a sense of wonder and respect for our physical world — all while celebrating the endurance of form and color.” — Fernando Mastrangelo.

Where Can I Get One?

Head on over to the Edward Fields website and filter through their many made-to-order floor coverings. Visit the “Editions” page and click on Reverence for photos of the full collection of beautiful climate change designs.