Vernacular Versailles
by Kat Ryals
Ryals’ rug series blends the aesthetics of modern banquet carpets with 18th c. European Savonnerierugs – textiles favored by French aristocracy. They have the appearance of handwoven, royal opulence yet were produced through a physical, hand-built collage process, then photographed and printed onto velvet rugs by an accessible, consumer level printing company.
The designs are enchanting, yet the elements that constitute them are discarded, cheap, artificial, or dead. A questioning of perceived value is played with here, by luring the viewer in with luxury aesthetics before revealing the work’s kitsch qualities. Their imagery references places of desire where busy carpets exist – conference centers for trade shows, elaborate palaces from a bygone era, perhaps the casino floor –spaces designed to keep consumers hopelessly spending under the illusion of attaining or becoming something more.
About the Artist
Kat Ryals is a Brooklyn-based mixed media artist. Her work explores the dichotomies between natural and artificial, trash and treasure, sacred and profane, luxury and kitsch. Through sculpture, lens-based work, textile art, and site-specific installations, she emulates material culture and organic artifacts.
She is a 2022 Joseph Robert Foundation grant recipient, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, White Hot Magazine, Artnet, Forbes, and Hyperallergic. She has attended residencies at Museum of Arts and Design (2024), Wassaic Project (2017, 2019, 2022), ChaNorth (2019), The Peter Bullough Foundation (2021), and received a Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center (2018).
For more information on Kat Ryals, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
