Kvadrat unveils Technicolour by Peter Saville at 3 Days of Design 2021
The celebrated collaboration between Kvadrat and Peter Saville opens a sensorial, thoughtful new chapter with the launch of Technicolour – a craft-orientated, sculptural collection that visually and haptically translates the industrial processes in textile production.
To mark the launch, Peter Saville has conceived an exhibition that will be presented at the Kvadrat showroom in Copenhagen, exploring the narrative of the collection, which arches from agricultural to industrial.
Join us in our showroom for a talk with Peter Saville, Stine Find Osther, Vice President of Design at Kvadrat, and Dienke Dekker, Design Manager Rugs, in conversation with Marcus Fairs, Editor and Founder of Dezeen.
Kvadrat showroom
Pakhus 48
Klubiensvej 22,
2150 Nordhavn
Technicolour by Peter Saville from Kvadrat on Vimeo.
Technicolour by Peter Saville
The celebrated collaboration between Kvadrat and Peter Saville opens a sensorial, thoughtful new chapter with the launch of Technicolour – a craft-orientated, sculptural collection that visually and haptically translates the industrial processes in textile production. The name relates to the spectrum of bold hues commonly used to mark flocks of sheep that are spectacularly incongruous in pastoral settings.
Rural Graffiti
Controlled accidents and traces of the reality of nature are expressed throughout Technicolour, which exemplifies Peter Saville’s eye for articulate colour compositions. The collection has its roots in the curiosity he’s always had about the random industrial-coloured markings on sheep which he first observed on family holidays in Wales. Peter has likened this to ‘rural graffiti’.
The narrative arches from agricultural to industrial, and reminds us that nature is not just a place to visit – it’s our home too.
Materials
Technicolour comprises of an upholstery, three rugs and two curtains. The upholstery and the rugs are meticulously crafted from the finest wool – which is naturally coarse – and reference, through seemingly haphazard colours and rich tactility, the character of stock-marked fleeces. At the opposite end of the haptic scale, the curtains in the collection are woven from smooth, subtly iridescent Trevira CS.
Colour palette
The colour palette for the upholstery textile Fleck consists of a scale of untreated wool tones and contrasting Day-Glo hues. It reflects that all the designs in the Technicolour collection offer characterful colour juxtapositions that recall the visceral dynamic between the vivid colours used to mark sheep and the foggy, earthy tones of natural fleece. This dynamic is continued in the rugs of the collection which playfully incorporates specks of vibrant contrasting colour along with natural soft hues and textures. This is complimented by the soft shine and transparant glow of the curtains Fade and Flux, which moves the collection from the grounded towards the airy and ethereal with light and bright colours.
“I am excited by how the collection brings the industry of the land, in raw form, into the living environment. The collection elements offer an experience of texture and colour, ranging from the expressionistic to the subliminal.”
TechnicolourSheep_2k_H264_25p_Stereo_ReCut from Kvadrat on Vimeo.
About Peter Saville
Peter Saville exists in a territory of his own. His practice occupies a space between art and design, and his unparalleled approach has resulted in a unique contribution to culture. This hybrid position came into being partly through the unprecedented autonomy afforded to him, aged 22, as co-founder and art director of the legendary independent UK label Factory Records.
Unlike most ‘commercial artists’ of the time and indeed since, Saville was free to design without approval. Making his art in the context of mass production, he accessed an audience through pop music, best exemplified in the series of record sleeves he created for Joy Division and New Order between 1979 and 1993.
His achievements were celebrated in The Peter Saville Show at the Design Museum in London in 2003. His first major show in a contemporary art museum was at the Migros Museum in Zurich in 2005. He continues to exhibit internationally.
Technicolour is the latest expression of the multidimensional collaboration between Peter Saville and Kvadrat. Over the years, the acclaimed British designer and artist has advised on a wide range of projects, including Kvadrat’s visual identity, Kvadrat’s London showroom with architect David Adjaye, Life is Space with Olafur Eliasson, Interwoven: Kvadrat Textile Design book, Your Glacial Expectation in collaboration with Olafur Eliasson and Günther Vogt, and the Sahco 2020 brand campaign with Jeff Burton.
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