Lionel Jadot, Flying Carpet, BE, 2020

Lionel Jadot’s latest unique work, a collaboration with fine art tapestry makers – KRJST Studio, is a nomadic fantasy lamp appropriately called Flying Carpet. Without traditional fasteners, the sculpture relies on embedded magnets, enabling it to be easily dismantled, moved, or arranged to suit a space or mood. KRJST Studio, part of Jadot’s Zaventem collective, are known for their lush and complex tapestries best described as “dreamscapes.” Grounded by a solid segment of 19th century Japanese root, the brass rods can be adjusted to support and shape the gypsy tent-like structure. Homemade toy balls from Burkina Faso, crafted from recycled material and embedded with magnets, connect with the rods to secure the tapestry. Flying Carpet‘s vibrant exposed electrical cords echo highlighted colors from the tapestry, suggesting over-scaled threads that have been pulled from the weaving.

While not easily categorized by a singular style, Jadot’s work could most easily be recognized by his affinity for repurposed materials and his deft eye at creating harmony and balance out of the collision of disparate elements. The principle of reclamation has been relevant to Jadot from a young age. As a child in his father’s workshop, Jadot developed a keen attraction and respect for materials, coveting the bits of scrap wood and leather that would accumulate around the floor and had been deemed “fair game.” Today this manifests as both a philosophical and aesthetic tenet to his work. Manipulating materials that have been salvaged permeates the works with a sense of character, history, and humanity.

Working from a near photographic mental library of materials and influences, he is at once artist, tinkerer, and inventor. He explains, “What interests me is ideas passing though memory, and the influences mixing. Culture meeting subculture, mixing genre – from memory. I filled notebooks of ideas and with this approach I decided to achieve all that was in my notebooks. It is an exciting job; it’s more an expression, free of any constraints. But it is also a free reflection on design and art, and this fragile border that I love to cross in both directions.”

Medium: Magnets, Japanese Root from 19th Century, Tissue Toy Balls from Burkina

Dimensions: 75h x 69w x 2d in, 190.50h x 175.26w x 5.08d cm