This summer, the Weatherspoon is excited to present RugLife, an exhibition featuring the work of contemporary artists who use rugs as an inventive medium to address a range of cultural topics, from housing and the environment to technology and global politics. These artists explore the complexity of our contemporary world through an ancient form, mixing traditional patterns and motifs with popular imagery ranging from Superman to basketball courts. Simultaneously, they reimagine the form of the rug itself by making the familiar object not only from the woven yarns we might expect, but also such surprising materials as cardboard, video, hair combs, collage, and plastic furniture. No matter the substance it uses, each of the rugs in RugLife weaves a thoughtful discourse about many issues and concerns—on both personal and global scales. Whether they turn our thoughts to home or our place in the larger world, to aesthetics or ethics, these artworks confirm that the age-old rug continues to be a powerful vehicle for contemporary artistic expression.
Participating Artists: Nevin Aladağ (Germany, born Turkey), Azra Aksamija (United States, born Bosnia), Ali Cha’aban (Lebanon, born Kuwait), Sonya Clark (United States), Liselot Cobelens (Netherlands), Nicholas Galanin (United States/Tlingit- Unangax̂), Johannah Herr (United States), Oksana Levchenya (Ukraine), Noelle Mason (United States), Wendy Plomp (Netherlands), Stéphanie Saadé (France/Netherlands, born Lebanon), Slavs & Tatars (Germany, Kasia Korczak born Poland and Payam Sharif born United States), Ai Weiwei (Portugal, born China), and Andrea Zittel (United States).
RugLife is organized by the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, and guest curators Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of c2 curatorsquared.
