WWF has just announced Tomorrow’s Tigers 2022, a major fundraising project with selling exhibition featuring commissioned, limited-edition art rugs by 12 internationally renowned artists. The first edition of this collaboration between WWF, Artwise Curators and Christopher Farr took place back in 2018 when Tomorrow’s Tiger introduced us to rugs by artists including Anish Kapoor, Gary Hume and Kiki Smith (see COVER 53). Coinciding with this year’s Lunar Year of the Tiger, for 2022 the selection will include a limited-edition art rug by Peter Doig and a unique, one-of-a-kind art rug by the leading Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. All 12 artworks will be exhibited at Sotheby’s London from 24-29 November 2022.
The on-going Tomorrow’s Tigers project is part of the global TX2 commitment to double wild tiger numbers and its goal is to pass £1 million generated in the sale of art rugs plus highlighting the continued threat to wild tiger populations and the ongoing work of WWF to address this. Led by Artwise Curators in partnership with WWF, Tomorrow’s Tigers is also the featured 2022 project for Art For Your World, which works with the art world to help tackle the climate and nature crisis.
With its extensive knowledge of producing art rugs, London-based brand Christopher Farr have worked with the 12 artists to raise their rug designs, which take inspiration from Tibetan tiger rugs. Artist Ai Weiwei’s rug Tyger was made in Afghanistan by the master weavers of Turquoise Mountain under the direction of Christopher Farr. Ai Weiwei comments, ‘For many years I have been actively researching on and documenting the human-animal relationship, so it is a theme that I am familiar with. I also have a long-term interest in Tibetan rugs and the motif of tigers on them for a long time. That’s why I accepted WWF’s invitation without hesitation. In my opinion, human civilisation can only be measured against human beings’ relationship with other beings in the world, our tolerance and understanding towards other species, and the well-being of all life. As a matter of fact, this kind of tolerance and understanding is very rare and difficult to find. Through the rug design, I hope to be able to do something for tigers; the meaning of their existence surpasses the scope of our comprehension, and yet 95% of tigers in the wild have gone extinct over the last 100 years.Protection of endangered animals is a kind of self-love, without which we would all be living in a savage land.’
A full report on the 2022 Tomorrow’s Tigers project will feature in COVER 69, out in December.
