We Make Carpets / the Netherlands

the Netherlands est. 2009

As part of the NGV Triennial, Dutch art collective We Make Carpets (Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg) share how they are inspired by the creative possibilities found in everyday objects, including plastic pegs, kitchen sponges, shuttlecocks and pool noodles.

Installations made from these familiar items include two mural-sized wall pieces, one comprising thousands of shuttlecocks, and another of palm-sized kitchen sponges commonly used for scouring pots. Through the arrangement of these materials, vibrant and complex geometric patterns emerge and encourage us to rethink the value in everyday objects.

Young visitors can share their own creativity through contributing to a patterned floor-based work; make dashes of colour with rope on the wall; colour-match a mural of pegs with pool noodles; and play with colour and shape using velcro swatches. Over the duration of the exhibition, the patterns produced by visitors create a kaleidoscope of colours for all to enjoy. ‘While making art we rely on a hands-on approach –working with the materials that you have in your hands – trying and failing until finally something beautiful emerges. We believe the images in your head are more important than the things already known. It is fantasy that creates, not facts. We hope our arrangements of objects offer new perspectives on modern life.’

BIO

We Make Carpets came together when designers Marcia Nolte and Stijn van der Vleuten joined forces with artist Bob Waardenburg to create a carpet-like installation for Dutch Design Week in 2009. The collective’s ephemeral installations have been exhibited widely at design and art events, museums and galleries throughout the Netherlands and Europe. This is the artists’ first exhibition in Australia.