Margo Selby X Christopher Farr
Colour + Craftsmanship
Margo Selby has joined forces with Christopher Farr to produce the Vexillum rug. A collectable piece, the rug is made in pure wool using a traditional hand knotting technique.
A rug such as Vexillum, for Christopher Farr, is at the intersection of Margo Selby’s practice and the embodiment of her tenet: Art-Into-Industry. Vexillum exemplifies the twin considerations of form and function – an objet d’art installed on a wall in a gallery setting, or a sumptuous floor covering transforming a domestic space.
Margo’s Vexillum series of artworks began as a commissioned installation for the Crafts Council’s annual international fair for contemporary craft and design at London’s Somerset House, and won the COLLECT Open Award 2020. The Christopher Farr collaboration came directly from this exhibition, and the launch now coincides with new works by Margo on show at Collect 2022. The macro-scale handwoven artworks are both painterly, in regard to the optical mixing of pure colour, and sculptural, constructed as they are in yarn. In a rug too, colours are integral and physical. Chroma, tone, form, shape, orientation, rhythm, texture – the grammar of Margo’s language – in symbiosis.
Vexillum is an exhilarating visual design, bold in colour, and employing optical effect in off-kilter kaleidoscope symmetry.
“Margo is almost forensic in her colour combinations. It’s not just visual impact, but the colour theory behind the design.”
– Matthew Bourne, Director Christopher Farr