“WE MAKE CARPETS” is a collaborative artwork of contemporary artists Stijn van der Vleuten, Marcia Nolte, and Bob Waardenburg. “We Make Carpets” does not make ordinary carpets. At least, not the kind of carpet you can walk on. The carpets are not meant to be touched either. But it sometimes happens anyway. But to glue everything down or put an art barrier around it? No. That doesn’t fit with the work. From a distance it may look like a carpet but you have to come close to see it is actually made of clothes pegs. Or some other everyday product…
We Make Carpets is an art collective consisting of Dutch artists Stijn van der Vleuten, Marcia Nolte, and Bob Waardenburg. The inspiration behind this trio was the desire to take unused household items and turn them into decorative installations that resemble carpets. The team specifically looks out for those household items that are underused, or tossed aside. Typical materials consist of plastic forks, sponges, bottles, pasta etc. The end result is an ornately embroidered series of decorative carpets that can be hung like a tapestry or exhibited in the traditional sense of being draped across the floor. The carpets come about in the same way: naturally. There is no design. The material, location and size are set but other than that they work intuitively.
The trio made their first carpet in 2009. They were collaborating in the ‘Instant Nature’ exhibition during that year’s Dutch Design Week. In the forest they collected pinecones and needles. These became Forest Carpet. The shape appealed to them and they developed their collaboration making six more carpets. ‘There never was a preconceived plan, like “from now on the three of us will make carpets”. It just happened. At the same time we had the feeling it might lead somewhere.’
