Commissioned by Elle Decor as an ongoing monthly series of work from different artisans, Kyle Bunting’s Fantastic Voyage Patchwork Rug is an homage to designer Eun Sun Chun, who spent her childhood summers in the vibrant city of Seoul.

The piece is a visual and textural tour de force. All the colors of the rainbow (and additional ones from some unfathomed place beyond) conspire in juxtaposed and counter-posed shapes and silhouettes.

A pale yellow encounters shouts of bright orange in a brickwork configuration; multi-hued stripes bump up against embroidered octagons; daring dahlias peek from behind colorful bars; and the snaking shape of a tiger’s tail in stark black and white serpentines in front of and behind and around the whole ensemble.

The variety of intersecting shapes and forms creates a three dimensional effect, compounding on the palpable textural variations for a rug that fairly jumps out at you, tricking the eye into seeing and feeling a multi-dimensional landscape.

Designer Chun comments on how familiar artifacts inspired the design: “The patterns and colors remind me of the traditional opal- and mother of pearl-inlaid cabinetry, the hanbok dress, the geometric patterns, and the vibrant colors of the textiles… it takes me back to the ornamental and structural forms of the buildings there.”

Fantastic Voyage is a one-off piece. Elle Decor will auction it off at the end of the year to benefit charity. That’s good news in itself, but perhaps the better news for aficionados is that both Kyle Bunting and Eun Sun Chun have plenty of other work available to the public.