Purple Magazine
— F/W 2012 issue 18
Anna Betbeze
Anna Betbeze
artist
text by JULIANA BALESTIN
portrait by ALEXIS DAHAN
The American artist Anna Betbeze dyes, rips, and burns ugly, domestic wool rugs. She certainly has Lucio Fontana’s rip paintings and Robert Morris’s textile minimalism in mind as she blurs the line between painting, sculpture, and interior design. She offers an exciting break from traditional canvases and creates a new approach to wall-mounted works by subverting the natural disposition of a shag rug — which she burns with acid, cuts up, and hangs. Handmade flokati rugs are her primary materials, and the sensuality of this particular carpet adds an element of craftsmanship to her roughed-up “readymade” surfaces. The use of negative space suggests endless possibilities for an already distinctive body of work.
Moss Garden, installation view, 2011, Kate Werble gallery, New York, photography by Elisabeth Bernstein
