Anna Betbeze : Plush Vision

13 Feb-2 Apr 2015

Overview

Eschewing the canvas and the notion of the support altogether, Betbeze uses flokati — the shaggy woollen rugs traditionally hand-woven in the Greek mountainside — as her signature material, dying these in acid baths, scorching with hot coals, shredding with razor blades and over-painting to arrive at a radical pictorial surface freighted with experience. The resultant artworks exhibit savagely marred surfaces that beg to be touched. Looming larger than the viewer and smelling of fire and animal, their pelt-like forms court a visceral response from the viewer as from one body to another, their scars recounting their own histories while all the while tapping into collective consciousness.