28-year-old fabric sculptor Rowan Mersh has been welcomed into the Fendi family. The London-based artist, who boasts two sculptures in the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection, began his affair with Fendi last year, when the Italian house and London's Gallery Fumi commissioned an installation of discarded leather offcuts. The result, a coral-like, wall-based sculpture of coiled black, brown, and gray straps, as well as a limited-edition set of leather jewelry, a textural dining table and a geometric black chandelier, was so impressive that the house has asked him back, this time to participate in a series of performances that demonstrate Fendi's artisanal practices.

Set to debut this Friday in the window of London's historic Harrods department store, the Future by Artisan project will be a fusion of contemporary art and old-world craftsmanship. While one of the house's artisans creates a Fendi bag, a machine will gather his real-time heart-rate data. This data will then be fed into an antique riveting machine, which will punch holes in left over Fendi leather strips. Mersh will then take these punctured scraps and, using the holes as fasteners, weave them onto a steal framework. As the artisan's heart rate changes, so will the distance between the holes; thus altering the façade of the sculpture.