Bio

Cayetano Ferrer (b. 1981 Honolulu) is interested in the spatiotemporal dislocations created by architecture, especially in Las Vegas, a city in which time and space often appear to be suspended. Once the fastest-growing city in the country and a hot spot for “atomic tourists,” Vegas has become a place where casinos are constantly being demolished and new construction projects are begun and then halted due to the dismal economy. Ferrer has spent the last couple of years collecting scraps and remnants of casino carpeting, examining the colors and designs and finding precedents in the long history of carpet making, such as symbols and patterns reminiscent of pre-Columbian tapestries. Patching together remnants, he has created a pattern even more dizzying than that of a single carpet, a hypnotic mosaic that takes you deep into the void, evoking the lulling world of the casino. Each seam of each scrap is simultaneously a rupture and a convergence. The carpet compresses designs from different casinos while suggesting a compression of time (not unlike the architectural experience of Las Vegas), with patterns and images derived from multiple cultures, times, and places.