The Nick Cave Collection for KnollTextiles

Nick Cave with fabrics from the new KnollTextiles collection. Photos courtesy of KnollTextiles

KnollTextiles introduces a collection of ten textiles created in collaboration with groundbreaking American artist and educator Nick Cave. Cave, born in 1959 in Missouri, works across both the visual and performing arts. By tapping various media—sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance—Cave pulls disparate influences into a new kind of cohesion that seemingly molds the past and the present into the rhetorical question: And now?

Throughout his practice, Cave has created spaces of memorial in which his audience confront the urgent issues of race, social justice, and identity politics in the United States. In his work, Cave reminds us, however, that along with despair, there remains the opportunity for hope and renewal. Perhaps best known for his Soundsuits, Cave creates dimension in textiles by layering, rearranging, and transforming everyday objects such as beads, doilies, sequins, and synthetic hair into material and sociopolitical representations. The heartbeat of all his work can be found in this combination of the high and low.

The Nick Cave Collection celebrates Cave’s creative process with four upholsteries, three draperies, and three wallcoverings that establish a new point of view on the textile experience—one in which the products represent not the end of the design process but the beginning. It is the audience who completes the creative journey by imagining what is next. Taking inspiration from specific sculptures and installations, KnollTextiles translates the visceral nature of Cave’s artworks to textiles. By layering pattern and multiple craft techniques, the textiles assume their own identity while remaining connected to original references.

“It was an immediate ‘yes’ when asked to collaborate with KnollTextiles because of their pioneering work’s role in my own development while at Cranbrook. Textiles are central to much of my work, and I love how they influence space and the people who connect with them. This collection is another way for people to access my art and share energy,” said Cave.

This Nick Cave collection aspires to bring joy and introduce a new way of living, one where no item is too precious or plain.

Guise

Guise showcases multiple techniques and materials.
Guise echoes the look of a Soundsuit.

When collaborating on the design of Guise, KnollTextiles and Nick Cave layered multiple techniques and materials, just as Cave does when building the surface of a Soundsuit. The top layer of the upholstery fabric was created with space-dyed, twisted novelty yarns and chenille yarns, achieving an effect similar to the beaded top layer of the Soundsuit that served as inspiration. The top layer interacts with a luminous ground fabric. A unique finish process creates the puckering effect visible below the top layer, tying together the color and textures.

Vert

Vert features 27 yarn colors per colorway.
The Architectural Forest installation served as the inspiration for Vert.

Nick Cave’s installation, Architectural Forest, inspired the energetic and complex Vert upholstery. Cave wanted to develop a specific section of the artwork as an upholstery pattern. The multicolor—27 yarn colors per colorway—variegated full-width repeat captures the blend of perfection and imperfection Cave’s work celebrates.

Puff

The 13 colors of Puff are based on a rainbow-colored Soundsuit.

Puff, a cozy faux shearling upholstery with loft, is available in a palette of thirteen colors based on Nick Cave’s rainbow-colored synthetic hair Soundsuit.

Doily

Two types of embroidery techniques enliven Doily.
Nick Cave often layers, doilies, beads, and embroidery.

Nick Cave is known for applying conventional materials in unconventional ways, as seen in his Soundsuits, which layer doilies, beads, and embroidery. In creating Doily, KnollTextiles adapted a Cave-like maximalist approach to building the upholstery surface—two types of embroidery techniques at various scales are layered over a woven ground featuring a different pattern. The result is a multidimensional textile with high visual interest.

Button

The Button drapery features an organic gradation of light to dark.
Vintage buttons have been used to embellish several Soundsuits.

Nick Cave travels the country visiting antique markets to source one-of-a-kind objects for use in his artworks. A favorite find is the vintage buttons that have embellished several Soundsuits. The unique personality and color dispersal of the well-patinated button spoke to KnollTextiles as a drapery concept. Button is digitally printed on Trevira CS Polyester, and the pattern features an organic gradation of light to dark.

Until

Until mimics the look of Nick Cave’s web-like installations.
Five ribbon colors are cut, applied, and sewn on Heard.

KnollTextiles envisioned an organic and open drapery from one of Nick Cave’s massive beaded web-like installations. Until is created by skilled embroiderers on a water-soluble ground that once dissolved, leaves a beautiful two-toned open drapery that offers structural integrity. Until also coordinates well with opaque window fabrics for enhanced color play and visual privacy.

Heard

Nick Cave’s painstakingly crafted Soundsuits are designed for movement and performance. Heard drapery speaks both to the meticulous method of hand sewing—every bead, button, and applique—and the essential motion of the Soundsuits. Five ribbon colors are cut, applied, and sewn, ribbon by ribbon and row by row.

Big Floral

Craft and movement are merged in Nick Cave’s work.
Big Floral is the first floral wallcovering by KnollTextiles.
A vibrant Soundsuit was the inspiration for Big Floral.

A vibrant, joyful beaded Soundsuit was the inspiration for KnollTextiles’ first floral wallcovering. Exaggerated scale sets this wallcovering apart from traditional florals and captures the energy and details of the original Soundsuit. Mural-like, Big Floral offers movement, dimensionality, and depth and is digitally printed on a bleach cleanable, PVC-free ground with Type II properties with a beaded texture emboss.

Forest

Forest is a colorful specialty wallcovering.
Forest captures the abstract vertical movement of Nick Cave’s Architectural Forest installation.

Nick Cave’s installation, Architectural Forest, inspired this specialty wallcovering. Forest captures the original artwork’s vibrancy and abstract vertical movement by using a ground technique called a warp lay, where the warp yarns are laid flat and laminated to a nonwoven substrate. Next, a transfer print is applied to the surface. This technique allows for an extraordinary intensity of color.

Wire

The Wire wallcovering is a digitally printed textured fur.
Wire is reminiscent of Nick Cave’s tondo sculptures.

Nick Cave’s metal and bead tondo sculptures inspired the Wire wallcovering. A digitally printed textured fur rendered in matte ink on a metallic mylar ground captures the tondo’s surprising contrast of softness and hardness. The printing allows just enough of the metallic base to show through to emulate the luster of the original tondo sculpture.

Founded by Florence Knoll in 1947, KnollTextiles explores the beauty and function of textiles for contemporary interiors. Through intricate techniques and materials, KnollTextiles unite richly layered texture, pattern, and color across upholstery, drapery, wallcovering, panel, and privacy fabrics. The collection includes the studio’s own work along with collaborations with designers, artists and architects including David Adjaye, Irma Boom, Maria Cornejo, Rodarte, and Proenza Schouler. KnollTextiles was the subject of a major retrospective at the Bard Graduate Center in 2011 and is featured in the permanent collection of Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum. KnollTextiles is a division of MillerKnoll and maintains a marketing and design studio in New York.