Montreal-based French artist Aude Moreau has created a carpet that is not only good enough to eat off of, but is actually edible! The sweet furnishing, aptly titled Sugar Carpet (or Tapis de Sucre), is made of over two tons of refined sugar. The delicate floor installation is refined both in terms of its purified components and its elegant resemblance to incredibly ornate with intricately woven patterns customarily found in opulent Persian rugs.
The piece is intricately designed in a sophisticatedly simple color palette of black and white with a hint of red embellishment. It is as meticulously constructed as it is receptive to losing shape. The fragile installation responds to footsteps just as one would imagine a pile of sugar to react to movement, which has required attentive maintenance in its construction to make sure that each granule was in place to support its structure at the beginning of its run.
The delicate installation is currently showing at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, where it is was originally intended to show last year. Unfortunately, the gallery space was flooded, completely dissolving Moreau's art and causing $400,000 worth of damages in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Luckily, with the support of Domino Sugar, Smack Mellon has reopened with another site-specific construction of Sugar Carpet on display through February 24th.
