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ART
The Market
Carpet
In many cultures, carpets have been used since ancient times to
record stories about people, places, and events. The stories were
told by weaving pictures and symbols into the fabric of the carpet.
Centuries ago, civilizations in the Mediterranean region developed
ceramic arts and began telling stories with mosaic compositions
made of glass, porcelain, and fired clay. Those mosaics, when installed
on a floor, were sometimes called tiled carpets.
The Market
Carpet, a floor mosaic in the center tower at Findlay Market,
is just such a tiled carpet. It tells the story of the market's
first 150 years as a crossroads of culture and commerce in Cincinnati.
Using the ancient medium of fired earth, The Market Carpet
knits together a century and a half of visual history in a colorful
porcelain carpet spread beneath the bell tower at the center of
Ohio's oldest public market.
Each quadrant
of the mosaic presents a view of the market, looking from the south,
in 1852, 1902, 1952, and 2002 respectively. Liberty Street row houses
form the outside border of The Market Carpet. Vintage vehicles,
appropriate to the time period of each quadrant, run along the street
and wait at its corners. Beyond Liberty Street, toward the center
of the mosaic, is the Green Street tree line. It is bisected at
its center by the Pleasant Street corridor leading to bustling Findlay
Market itself.
In the 1852
quadrant, the market is depicted as it was before the market house
was built, as a collection of tents and stalls in an open field.
By 1902, a familiar iron framed market shed has been erected but
it is open-sided and without a center tower. The 1952 market house
is enclosed and is dominated by a brick center tower topped with
a bell cupola. Finally, in 2002, an expanded and more colorful Findlay
Market occupies the site. Look closely, and you will see how differently
people dressed over the years and how the ethnic mix of market shoppers
changed.
Beyond the market
house and toward the center of The Market Carpet, the view
progresses over the years, from Findlay's woods in 1852 to Elder
Street's evolving row houses in the decades following. The brass
dateline and blue sky above complete the story up to our generation.
Designed by David Day, a lifelong Over-the-Rhine resident with studios
in the Pendleton Art Center, The Market Carpet measures approximately
eight feet by eight feet. It is composed of thousands of brightly
colored one inch porcelain tiles manufactured by the historic firm,
Emaux de Briare, in Briare, France.
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