Take a walk on the wild side with Alexandra Kehayoglou’s earthy, hand-tufted landscapes.
On the surface, Alexandra Kehayoglou’s works are gorgeously impressive hand-tufted functional rugs, rich in earthy tones. Her cubic slices of textural lands are overflowing with all kinds of greenery. We contemplate a world where this amount of green can or did exist! Drawing on her own memories of her native Argentina, we’re given access to visit these now decaying lands, altered by human activity.
Like an archeolgist, she preserves her memories through her laborous craft, to give us a map and topolgy of these endagered landscapes. Her installation ‘Santa Cruz River’ showcased her prediction of the harmful effects future damming could cause the river and the surrounding area. And this is the undercurrent that runs through her work; using politically charged locations to not only weave her own memories and research, but to also shout out about a disappearing landscape and confront us to be environmentally aware.
This hand-crafted warning of extinction doesn’t take away from the fact that Kehayoglou’s work is visually stunning. Like being whisked away on magic carpet ride, we are taken deep into the wilderness, to lost lands, and those on the brink. Lush, fertile, and rich in vegetation, these unique one-off textiles are as rare as what they represent, and should be something to admire but also to give us cause to stop and consider its argument for the environment.
For more of her work visit her website.
- ‘No Longer Creek’, 2016. Textile tapestry (handtuft system), wool
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