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My pub carpets at Tate Liverpool!

I am beyond excited to announce that I will be taking my pub carpets to TATE (!) Liverpool for an installation on the evening of 12 April.

To celebrate their current Op Art exhibition I’ll be creating visuals, using my collection of pub carpet pics, to accompany a (binaural) soundscape by Phil Channell (whose brilliant work you might have heard on the BBC podcast Death in Ice Valley). My studio mate and Adobe Affer Effects hero Inessa Tsulimova has helping me to create animations to make this a true magic carpet ride!

When I moved to the UK in 2008, I became fascinated by the Britons’ fondness for carpet. Not usually found in public places on the continent, in Britain carpet helps to create a homely feel and dampens the acoustics of crowded spaces. Designs traditionally mimic the oriental rugs of far-away places, giving a suggestion of luxury. The elaborate designs cleverly work to camouflage any stains that will accrue over time, whether it’s beer, red wine, chips, puke or piss! The design of public carpets has evolved to embrace the hypnotic geometric shapes and visual tricks of op-art and other modern design, in ways that make them both bold and adept at masking heavy wear and tear.
I began documenting the different carpets and over the years I’ve collected over 300 designs. In my search for new carpets I have organised several ‘Pub Carpet Crawls’ in Cardiff, Bristol and London. Much to my surprise I found very few duplicates, indicating there is a huge variety in designs.

It’s going to be a really fun night with live music (my mates Annexe The Moon!), DJs (Breakwave. And me!), street food and drinks. Come!

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