Inspired by Andy Warhol’s 1986 camouflage works, Maharishi offers the famed Tigerstripe pattern across a collection of rugs, cushions, skate decks and apparel. The same approach Warhol took in adapting the scale, colours and off-set registration of the U.S. Army pattern in 1986 has been taken by Maharishi, to present a new Maha Warhol camouflage series, in celebration of the Lunar Year of the Tiger 2022.
Warholian colour ways are applied to the impossible to find camouflage pattern famed by U.S. Special Forces in 1960s Vietnam.
The set of cushions is made from an eco-conscious, cupro twill with a soft, silk-like handle and is produced in Japan. The all-over print is completed with Maharishi and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts logos. Skate decks are offered in Canadian maple and are only available in a set of 6.
Maharishi first collaborated with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in 2004 and created collections of apparel and toys in collaboration with Medicom, Japan.
Warhol’s Camouflage Series, in original scales and colourways, form the basis for 5 of the pop patterns whilst the 6th is a posthumous collaboration resulting in a Warholian colourway of Maharishi’s DPM: Bonsai Forest. Warhol’s 1987 works were directly based on the US Army Woodland pattern that he had seen in the newspaper so often.
One of Warhol’s most famed and final painting series ‘The Last Supper’ (1984 - 1986), saw the artist exhaust variation over the span of 100 different renditions of artworks of Leonardo’s original, innovating and utilising the industrial processes available to artists at the time. The Renaissance masterpiece was transformed into a pop culture artefact as Warhol combined commercial logos and advertising of the time with the painting.
Maharishi breathes new life into this particular artwork by updating the camouflage pattern to Tigerstripe, in celebration of the Lunar Year of the Tiger.
Andy Warhol’s flowers are expressed through hand-tufted floor coverings in DPM: Tigerskins camouflage. This artwork lends itself well to this type of disruptive pattern reinterpretation owing to its almost abstract nature. As art historian Nina Zimmer notes “Warhol reduced and radicalised his Flowers to such an extent that the banal subject matter was now transformed into a powerful pictorial concept. The directionless format contributed to this: the pictures can be read in all directions; like an abstract painting, top and bottom, left and right, have been revoked.”
The vivid pop colours are featured across a set of four high pile rugs, each finished with Maharishi and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts branding on the reverse.
Maha Warhol’s Banana Kappa Embroidered Snopants re-present Andy Warhol’s banana of Velvet Underground fame, in the hands of Kappa, the mythological Japanese water demon feared for threatening to steal the people’s harvested foods. Intricate hand-machined embroidery is offered on a loose, casual, military-inspired silhouette constructed in a blend of organic cotton and recycled polyester.
Maha Warhol present the Lunar Ox T-Shirt, in celebration of the Lunar Year of the Ox, 2021. Andy Warhol’s original Cow artwork is lightly updated with the inclusion of a nose ring.
Andy Warhol’s famed bananas and pop colourways of camouflage are included in Maharishi’s Tour Jacket, which features dozens of patches, including contributions from Andy Warhol and many contemporary New York artists.
The Maha Warhol project is epitomised by Andy Warhol’s Banana expressed through a hand-tufted wool rug, in the original yellow, as well as Maharishi’s house olive.
In 2004, Maharishi and Medicom produced the first Andy Warhol toys and homewares in collaboration. Products included 12” action figures of the artist and plush bananas. SSUR joined the collaborative parties and produced a green variant of the banana, inspired by plantain.
AW05 Maharishi lookbook shot by Norbert Schoerner, featuring 12” action figures of Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, produced in collaboration with Medicom, under licences from The Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts inc and The Jean Michel Basquiat Estate.