She recognizes that her profile as an artist is far from conventional. She sees herself set apart from other contemporary artists as she promotes interaction with her works, not only from visitors when they’re exhibited in museums but also through wear and tear when they serve as homeware. "Being touched, walked on, and dirtied, brings the works to life."
Alexandra Kehayoglou, is a young Argentine rug maker, whose work has become highly sought after both internationally and in her homeland.
Kehayoglou creates tufted rugs that explore the natural landscape of her Argentinian home. Each one of them representing a real landscape. She was commissioned to carpet the entire runway and create the surreal decor for Dries Van Noten’s spring-summer 2015 show under the glass roofs of the Grand Palais. The carpet required a month and a half of intensive work in her workshop located in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. In 2015 she participated in the Frieze Art Fair in London, exhibited at London’s V&A, Chamber Gallery in New York, and a collaboration with French fashion brand Hermès in 2016.
“Much of the processes involved in my work have been the product of happy accidents”
The rugs are created from the artist’s own memory and research into the disappearing grasslands and waterways of her homeland. The artist uses the medium of carpet weaving to draw attention to the effects of man and his pursuit of materialism on the environment. Nature and respect for the environment are at the heart of Alexandra’s approach.
She uses unused threads and textiles to develop her work. The carpets are created using materials from her family’s carpet-making factory, which has been in operation for nearly six decades. Alexandra’s work is three-dimensional and often life-like in their scale. They combine texture and color in a way that engages the senses.
Kehayoglou’s creations blur the boundaries between artisanal craft and contemporary art. Rugs are given life, through use and public interaction, existing both as decorative objects and functional homeware. She considers herself an artist first and foremost. She sees her creativity as intuitive and identifies herself with other artists who have a mission with an underlying message in what they produce, both challenging and changing opinions.
At the border between craftsmanship and art, Alexandra Kehayoglou’s hyper-realist rugs are true homages to nature. Armed with her wool and her skills, Alexandra was inspired by nature to recreate spaces that imitate to an astonishing degree the natural texture of moss, grass or rock. More than simple decorative objects that beg to be looked at and touched, each of her creations is a truly sensory experience that reminds us how precious nature really is.
" My creations reconnect me to the roots and my family heritage by weaving links between past, present, and future."
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