This work started as a technical research, and found a life of its own as an approach to fashion. The fabric rectangle is charged with warm feelings, it reminds me of home, where it is worn casually both inside and outside, wrapped around the waist as a skirt. Everybody there has one in their closet and on their wall. The color treatment is very much inspired by domestic life textiles in the South Pacific, bright blues washed out by the sunlight.
Photographs were taken by my dear friend Elina Belou.
What happens to you when you live away from your roots?
How do I call back all the sensations that I miss? What is mine?
My research is fuelled by these questions. I am trying to go home, after realising quite late that, indeed, I am very far from home.
Home is not where I currently live, in Northern Europe.
Home is New Caledonia, an archipelago in Melanesia.
In the South Pacific, flowery textile is part of daily life. It can be domestic and practical : tied around the waist or worn on the head, laid on the ground for a nap. It can also be symbolic and emotional. When used for ritual practice, it can symbolise respect, togetherness, compassion, joy. The clashing colours are an insolent celebration of terrestrial and physical life, outshining the greens of a lush vegetation.
COME HOME! is an intimate textile research, part of which was exhibited at Hae, Maastricht, in the summer of 2022. Five panels of silk appliqué on silk are attached on a simple structure. Inside, the visitor finds a mirror and a series of hand painted silk scarves that they may touch or put on.
Here the structure and the scarves will first be shown individually. Pictures of the installation at Hae are at the bottom of the page. Photographs at Enci Maastricht and in studio by talented David Hummelen.
The patterns on the panels are made from a combination of vintage and hand dyed silk, hand stitched onto the background. Each panel measures 100x110cm.
The metal structure is 2x1x1m, and is coated with silk clay. It was built with the precious help of my friend Nassim Versbraegen.
Vintage silk, hand dyed and painted, 65x65cm.
Hand painted and stitched silk, 70x70cm.
Hand painted and hand stitched, 90x90cm.
Found silk, hand painted, 90x90cm.
Hand painted, hand stitched silk, 125x130cm.
Audrey contemplating the breakdown of the exhibition.
Pictures from the book Tifaifai and Quilts of Polynesia by Joyce D. Hammond
Video clip for Hi Hawaii.
Hand sculpted shoes featured in a photoshoot for Patchworkers.
Patchworkers is an experimental participatory design workshop for the upcycling of textiles, and socio-professional rehabilitation. It was founded by textile designer Zoé Nehlig in 2019. The workshop is located in Strasbourg, France.
This is the SS21 collection shoot. Beside the shoes, I also did the styling of the pictures, the campaign was shot by Atelier Gilbert.
Le Tailleur is a work produced in collaboration with artist and friend Zoé Nehlig , during FRICHE, an artist’s residency in Brussels.
The small collection is entirely hand sewn using scraps of precious fabrics, and is using textile manipulation techniques such as shibori-inspired dyeing, and embroidery.
This work is celebrating a candid and joyful approach to garment making, disregarding expertise, trends and of course functionality.
From left to right : Pour coucher de soleil, La neige, Jardinage.
Shibori on silk, embroidery and stitching on silk. Friche, Brussels, 2016
From left to right : Pour courir, La neige, Tenue de la prairie.
Painting on silk, embroidery on silk.
Dessins, Rossicontemporary Gallery, Brussels, 2015.
On Valentine’s day while plying the waters of the Sea of Cortez, I came upon a young humpback whale that appeared to be dead. We floated next to the whale for several minutes but we saw no signs of life. Suddenly, the whale rose slightly in the water and forcefully exhaled. I decided to ease in the water with my snorkeling gear in order to assess the situation.
Pencil on paper, 6,6x8,1cm on A4, 2015
It was a beautiful clear summer’s night with a full moon.
Pencil on paper, 8,3x10,4cm on A4, 2015.
We heard a commotion on the beach, and dad mentioned a wave or something.
Pencil on paper, 12,4x12,3cm on A4, 2015.
1974 - Mururoa
pencil on paper, 6,6x11,5cm on A4, 2015
I shot this while stationed aboard the USS Wyoming SSBN 742 Gold crew.
Pencil on paper, 11,1x8,1cm on A4, 2015.
Jungle drum
Pencil on paper, 8,7x5,9cm on A4, 2015.
Sails shredded last night.
Pencil on paper, 13x10,5cm on A4, 2015
Untitled
Pencil on paper, 15,8x23cm on A4, 2015
One of the children saw something on the ground, a large canvas white-grey balloon of some kind.
Pencil on paper, 10x9,5cm on A4, 2015
Everything here is over.
Pencil on paper, 9,6x7,9cm on A4, 2015.
It started deceptively as ripples.
pencil on paper, 9,4x8,6cm on A4, 2015
The Blogpera is a performance by the Jens Maurits Orchestra, for which I have made the visual identity and the digital interface.
Alphabet, pencil on paper, 25x18cm, 2014.
Work in progress : La maison is a collaboration with dramaturge Daan Milius. It started in january 2016.
Here are two fragments of interviews with my parents.
Sleep, 3'33, 2016
This video was shown at RM Base, Munich, 2016.
They do it for a reason is a CD-book made in collaboration with Jens Maurits Orchestra. The music is composed by Jens Bouttery and the story written by Daan Milius. It contains a collection of images that I gathered through my numerous internet explorations.
This visual research is an attempt to observe our relationship to animals, and the way we project feelings and intentions onto them.
Posters printed on a velvet paper.
Venus en pâte à modeler, digital print, 90x130cm, 2014
Patte, digital print, 84x115cm, 2014
Titanic, digital print, 90x118cm, 2014
Vue du ciel, digital print, 84x114cm, 2014
Jungle, scan, 2015.
Game of Death, color pencil on paper, 37x29cm, 2013
Sabine, color pencil on paper, 50x35cm, image : 31x27cm, 2013.
L'ophiogon nigresens est la seule plante à feuilles noires.,color pencil on paper, 50x35cm, image : 11x8cm, 2013
Untitled, color pencil on paper, 35x50cm, image : 15x14,5cm, 2013.