"The show features the work of 14 contemporary artists who use the rug as a medium to engage with cultural concerns related to religion, technology, social justice, housing, and the environment. The diverse roster of artists from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia work across a variety of media, including yarn, cardboard, repurposed carpets, and hair combs, to transform this functional object into a site of experimentation - manipulated, reinterpreted, and made new."
"Ukrainian artist Oksana Levchenya produces traditional kylym rugs, a technique for carpet weaving dating to the 16th century, while introducing contemporary imagery that combines folk ornament with pop culture. In "Pac-Man and Cossacks" (2022), Levchenya deploys hybrid symbolism - historic Cossacks battling Pac-Man - using humor to underscore deeper reflections on cultural icons past and present. Sonya Clark draws on Black vernacular hair design and cultural symbolism in works that reimagine the rug as both sculpture and statement."
A nationally touring exhibition makes a final stop at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, featuring 14 contemporary artists who transform rugs into sculptural and conceptual works. Artists from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia employ materials such as yarn, cardboard, repurposed carpets, hemp thread, natural dyed wool, and plastic combs to interrogate religion, technology, social justice, housing, and the environment. Ukrainian weaver Oksana Levchenya uses traditional kylym techniques with pop-culture imagery in Pac-Man and Cossacks, juxtaposing historic motifs and videogame iconography. Sonya Clark assembles hundreds of black plastic combs in Comb Carpet to explore Black vernacular hair design, identity, reappropriation, and ancestry.
Read at Hyperallergic
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