Artist Alexandra Kehayoglou creates lush, eye-popping rugs using recycled scraps and threads from a carpet factory in Buenos Aires. Her recent works make a statement against deforestation and beautifully increases environmental awareness. Let’s learn more!
Immersive Rugs Of Lush Argentinian Landscapes Made from Recycled Yarn
For many of us, a carpet is simply a way to keep our feet warm in winter. But for Alexandra Kehayoglou, this humble textile is a whole world unto itself! This textile artist is famous for using scraps of yarn to create intricate, lush landscapes that showcase the natural beauty of her homeland Argentina, with its swirling blue lakes, rippling verdant grasslands, and rugged white glaciers.
Alexandra uses the medium of carpet weaving to draw attention to the effects of materialism on the natural environment. Her works are three-dimensional and often life-like in scale, providing a truly immersive and sensory experience that reminds us just how precious nature really is.
Sensory Art That Encourages Us To Reflect On Our Relationship With The Environment
Alexandra's rugs are not only beautiful but also thought-provoking. Each piece is crafted from the artist's own memory and research into the disappearing grasslands and waterways of her Argentinian home. However, the message in her art rugs goes beyond the local landscapes featured in her works. It extends to the rest of the world to recognize the value of our natural resources.
The locations she chooses to weave showcase the impact that planned projects have on our ecosystems. For example, she created a scene from the Santa Cruz River, which has been drastically altered by human-built infrastructure. Her recreation of Raggio Creek is a call for greater awareness of how human activity is altering the environment and changing it forever.
How Did Alexandra Start Designing Art Rugs?
Alexandra, whose Greek grandmother began making handwoven mats in the 1940s, says “my entire life has revolved around carpeting, my grandparents opened a carpet company, El Espartano (which translates to The Spartan), in 1956, and my family still runs it."
She studied painting in art school, but didn't immediately find her passion for creating immersive rugs. It wasn't until 2007, when she began designing commercial carpets for El Espartano, that she discovered she could make tactile canvases. So she started saving scraps to experiment with.
One year later, she held her first textile-art exhibition in Buenos Aires. "I realised I could use material from my family's business," she says, "to create my own vision."
The attention to detail in Alexandra’s rugs is simply breathtaking — from the way the fibres are arranged to the intricate use of colour, each carpet is a true work of art. We love that they encourage us to reflect on our relationship with the environment and remind us how important it is to take care of our planet!
For more feel-good stories around eco-innovations, wildlife, and sustainability, check out our Eco News category and the blogs below.
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