At ICFF, wrapping up today, Trove celebrates spring with an alluring new collection of images and patterns that once again push the dimension of wallpaper design in beautiful and unexpected ways. Jee Levin and Randall Buck, cofounders of Trove, are innovative multimedia designers who approach each new collection as artists to a blank canvas. Drawing influences from myriad media and experiences – from architecture, film and art history to travel and nature – this new collection exhibits the distinctive qualities of Trove designs: surprising scale, unconventional color palette, and a poetry and grace that transforms walls into works of art, inviting interpretation.
At ICFF in the Javits Center, Trove is presenting five arresting new designs – Allee, Rinceau, Grotte, Suichuka and Macondo – along with Trace, a recently released design that makes its ICFF debut this year. All of the patterns are available in six colourways and in Trove’s signature scale, which repeats at 12-foot high and 6-foot wide and can be customized to height.
ALLEE
Allee presents an expansive dreamscape inspired by Alain Resnais’ 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad. Set in an unspecified formal garden, the film plays with spatial and temporal shifts in scenes to create an ambiguous narrative. The designers translate the cinematic repetition to photographic repetition, composing a landscape organized around a central pathway, thereby inviting the passerby to wander into this mise en scène.
RINCEAU
French for foliage, “rinceau” describes a style of filigree that is characterized by leafy stems, florid swirls and sinuous natural elements. Buck was inspired by the extravagant architectural moldings from the Baroque period for this design. The Baroque period emphasized shadow and light, both of which are fundamental elements of Trove’s vocabulary, due to the photographic nature of most of the work. With its Rinceau design, Trove frames classic architecture in a contemporary graphic language, inviting us to explore the edges. In the case of Rinceau, there are 6-foot and 3-foot wide x 12-foot repeat options and a cornice-only option allowing architects and designers to create spaces with architecture as the decoration.
GROTTE
Grotte merges a primitive painting technique from the Paleolithic period with today’s version of primitive painting: graffiti. The inspiration and execution for this design was first inspired by European cave paintings, which count among the earliest forms of graffiti. Trove experimented with the process used by the artists of the Lascaux and Chauvet caves in Southern France, which involves blowing raw pigment through a tube by mouth onto the surface – only the designers used the medium of powdered sugar. Grotte shows that graffiti can be beautiful, too.
SUICHUKA
An ornament that stems from ancient Japan, Suichuka is an artificial flower that blooms when immersed in water. Trove applies its signature use of motion to compose an underwater scene of blooming flowers that lie just below the water’s surface. Koi fish, symbols for good luck in Japan, swim throughout.
MACONDO
In celebration of Gabriel García Márquez’s passing, Trove designers have created a resting point for his parrot from Love In The Time of Cholera. The monumental Macondo is a tower of foliage; the layered abundance is a salutation for the imaginative riches he has bestowed upon our collective imaginations. As the parrot is the only animal allowed in the house, Macondo is a calling for a little magical realism… in design and in life.
TRACE
Drawing inspiration from the diversity of North American forests, Trace, which was released in late 2013, depicts the silhouette of a forest as a skyline. Here, the word “trace” references both the concept – an impression that recalls a specific time and place in memory – and the process for this piece – created with Trove’s signature multimedia approach, combining photography and its handdrawn reflection below.
Trove employs technology that pushes beyond the conventional manufacturing limits to create sustainable solutions that meet the codes and regulations for commercial applications. All Trove patterns may be applied to a full range of substrates, which include the silky Stoneground wall“paper”; Type I commercial grade wallpapers; Redelux (PVC-free) and Marquee (glass bead emboss) Type II wallcoverings; wood veneers; window films; and dyed carpets.
ABOUT TROVE
Founded in 2006 in New York City, Trove is led by Jee Levin and Randall Buck, who are both accomplished artists and the creative force behind the brand. Randall Buck, a multi-media artist who works in time-based media, envisions pattern from an architectural perspective and engages technology in an effort to return the design work back to a finished form, which is tactile, distinct and inspired. The company employs technology that pushes beyond conventional manufacturing limits. Buck believes these innovations are essential to his evolution as a designer and the possibilities are limitless. Jee Levin, who applies her technique and philosophy of painting to wallcovering design, seeks to create wallpaper that breaks all the rules by reimagining the current language of wallpaper from repetitive graphic patterns to organic imagery with less repeat and more of the random. Depth and perspective replace geometry and line.
For more info, visit http://troveline.com/wallpapers.php4