RED CARPET

2011, Shaved velvet
18 x 1,4 m
TATE Collection
Installation view from the show Dream On (2022) | Hellenic Parliament + NEON.
Photos © Natalia Tsoukala, Courtesy NEON and © Panos Kokkinias

Inspired by Herman Melville’s short story Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Red Carpet is a velvet installation with the imprints of a predatory imaginary being that unfurls from ceiling to floor; a work directly related to power and its relationship with finitude. The agony of the fall leaves its marks on the red carpet while humour – its other dimension – wraps the mythical monster in the fabric.

At the invitation of Claude d’ Anthénaise, Director of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, the work was created and exhibited for the first time in 2011 at the exhibition Escargothique, bizaragignee, éléphantasme…un bestiaire merveilleux at Château de Pierrefonds in Oise. Since 2022 the Red Carpet is part of the Tate Collection.