lizan freijsen transforms mold stains and lichene into hand-tufted carpets

fascinated by fungi, mold, and moisture stains, lizan freijsen inverts our obsession with banning these from our everyday environments by turning them into beautiful textiles, such as carpets, blankets, and wall decorations. the dutch artist captures a moment in time and transforms something ugly into valuable objects through a unique production process that combines her long-term research on color and form with the time-consuming craft of hand tufting.

all images © studio lizan freijsen

fungi carpet in zomersneeuw, belmonte, wageningen

‘I started working on this theme when leakages and stains begun to appear in my garden shed,’ explains freijsen to designboom, who first met the rotterdam-based artist two years ago, ‘as the dreadful stains were developing over time they almost appeared as a painting from nature, and I decided to transform that fear into security. contrary to stains, carpets are beautiful and you want to include them in your house.’ the textiles embody the hidden beauty freijsen finds in decay, imperfection, and urban nature, while they also pose a contrasting response to the over-controlled society in which we live.

the hole moss carpet

for the production of these textiles, the dutch artist has developed a new craft in collaboration with hester onijs and karen zeedijk of the textile museum in tilburg, the netherlands. ‘when I first started making the carpets, people advised me to go to china as it is very expensive to produce them in europe,’ freijsen notes, ‘but I felt that if I did that it would be someone else’s work and not mine, as I would only have to send an image and then the final product would be sent back to me. so I decided to develop the craft myself – in the netherlands there is only a handful of people who are still able to do produce carpets, if they stop then there will be no carpet industry here anymore.’

the living surface studio by lizan freijsen. photo by lotte van stekelenburg (also header image)

‘I always work with photography as a tool to translate and study this phenomenon,’ explains freijsen of her design process, which involves capturing the stains, tracing over them and enlarging them before turning them into objects. more images of her photo-archive and documentation of her work can be found in her recently published book, the living surface.

frame moss blanket