ross lovegrove snakes 21-meter-long three dimensional tapestry in V&A

at the victoria and albert museum (V&A) during london design festival 2017, ross lovegrove references the 15th century tapestries on display with a 21.3-meter-long fluid and free-standing installation called ‘transmission’. as a three dimensional tapestry, the work uses alcantara fabric – building upon their previous collaboration ‘in-formation‘ at imm cologne 2017 – to create soft undulating folds that span like a snake along the length of the gallery.

image © edmund sumner

‘the V&A is an exceptional place that has no fear of fusing the old with the new, as shown in amanda levete’s new design for the V&A exhibition road quarter,‘ says ross lovegrove. ‘everything is sophisticated and carefully curated, but anything can happen. london design festival works with the V&A to create sych an exciting programme, proving that art, design, architecture and craft in london retains edge and adventure.‘

image © designboom

presented by alcantara, ‘transmission’ builds on the organic forms for which ross lovegrove is well-known for. the fluid installation for london design festival 2017 responds to the rich scenes of wealth and aristocratic fashion depicted in the 15th century tapestries at the V&A. it does so most clearly through replicating the unique, warm spectrum of oranges and reds which adorn the dated artwork, as well as its complementing gold and silver threads. catching the glimmering lights of the gallery, these threads create over two million glints that run down and highlight the edges of the entire design.

image © edmund sumner

image © edmund sumner

image © edmund sumner

image © edmund sumner

image © designboom

image © edmund sumner

image © designboom