For your pleasure

In For Your Pleasure, curator Lauren Hirshfield presented a solo exhibition of textile prints by artist Kat Ryals, whose work examines how myth-making, ornamentation, and special effects serve as tools for manipulation. Her current series employ a multi-faceted production process that marries her training in photography, sculpture, and installation into a compact collection of machine-printed rugs. Hung on the wall like tapestries and with a low-pile faux velvet texture, the prints feature flamboyant and almost grotesque patterns that Ryals attributes to both the showroom carpeting of glitzy Las Vegas and ornate symmetrical designs of 18th century Savonnerie rugs. The images are photographs of to-scale collages built on the wall using found objects, scrap fabrics, bones, and buckets-worth of single use accessories recycled throughout her production process. The final product is a sleek commercial-grade rug print, hiding the dozens of hours of labor required of it - an exacting decision by the artist that speaks to her interests in systems of value. The work was presented to entice visitors in over curiosities and the joy of exploration - as one does on a vacation, perhaps. Quickly, however, the facade is seen through. And in so doing the tools, structures, and systems in which power and manipulation thrives are unraveled and uncovered. For Your Pleasure was on view in booth 1106 at SPRING/BREAK Art Show located at 625 Madison Ave in New York City from September 7th - 12th, 2022.