'Tiger Merch' is a series of limited products that pay tribute to – while poking fun at – the tiger, the first wet-on-wet painting in designer Rop van Mierlo’s ‘Wild Animals’ series. Van Mierlo handmade the rugs in the series in the TextielLab.
‘Tiger Merch’ plays with the idea of artist merchandise, the dubious concept of commercialising artists' work after their death. Van Mierlo is fascinated by how the work of artists, who are often driven by poverty, contrasts sharply with the commercialisation of their work after their death. With 'Wild Animals', he tackles and makes fun of this contradiction, creating his own merchandise while still very much alive. The rugs in the series were handmade in the TextielLab from cotton, polyester, polyamide and Lycra.
