The art of embroidery. Telling stories, uniting worlds, revealing beauty.

Elegance and strength enclosed in an ancient gesture: embroidery. Symbol of beauty, of the desire to distinguish, to enrich and tell something through traditions, this technique has become art, has always fascinated by the infinite possibilities of expression contained in it and for the time of work that force a moment of reflection, of stillness of the mind. I had the pleasure to know and talk with the artist Anaïs Beaulieu on how this style is an essential part of her art and her identity.

How did you discover your passion for art? 

I’ve always liked to draw, since I was a child. It all started with a love for books: I spent a lot of time in the library flipping through the shells that I still collect. I have so many at home! At the College I decided to study Art History and later did a Masters in Fine Arts. At that time I practiced drawing, collage and photography. The notebook had become my studio. After university, I worked as a binder in a company and realized how important books were for my life. I decided to specialize in this area and to take a Professional Master’s in Art Editions and Book of Artists. At that time I was fascinated by children’s books. I did an internship in the archives of Father Castor and also for Three Ourses with whom I worked for 7 years. I was hired to supplement the work of Bruno Munari: I was fascinated by his vision of the pedagogy of art in everyday life. I have also worked with artists like Katsumi Komagata, Marion Bataille, Louise-Marie Cumont, but also to shape a vision of art and craft education. Later I decided to leave for Madagascar and then in Burkina Faso. In those places I understood some things: human beings exist also thanks to what they can do through their hands. So I asked myself, “What can I do with my hands?”. At the age of eight my grandmother taught me to embroider to make a gift to my other grandmother who lived 500 km away. The idea of ​​traveling is still present in my work. Indeed, traveling allows me to observe the contrasts between countries, for example the differences between Burkina Faso and France. That’s why it’s so important for me to go to places and that’s why I started embroidering. I really like doing it while I travel.

What is embroidery for you?

It is a way to cross time but also to establish a universal connection. Embroidery is everywhere in the world. My work finds its basis in mythology, in those epic tales in which there is a connection between language and embroidery. For example, the thread of Ariadne, Penelope or the Nommo God that describes Ogotomelli in Dieu de eau by Marcel Griaule. Embroidery to express the history of the world in which I live through a very ancient technique. Using it in the present also makes it contemporary. It makes me feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. I always try to look at what’s behind it. My grandmother told me that to recognize good embroidery you have to look at the back. Each embroidery has its own story.

How was your experience in Burkina Faso?

I came back from there a few months ago. It was the tenth time I went but this time it was a very special experience. “Facteur Céleste”, a label that creates bags and wallets in the recycling of plastic bags, asked me to create a new collection of wallets inspired by some models of classic ceramics and to make it in Burkina Faso where they already had worked. I agreed on condition that I could work with the women of the village where I used to go. So it was. I taught 6 women to embroider. Only one already knew how to do it, for the others it was not easy but they were courageous and for each one it was a great experience of exchange. The first time I went to Burkina Faso I was struck by the heat of the people. This led me to come back several times. My experiences there allowed me to reflect and realize things about the contrasts of modern life. In Burkina Faso I was inspired to make the most of the subjects in the À vos souhaits (Salute!) Series. For example, I realized how lucky I am to live in a place where there is electricity. So I embroidered a plug on fabric. A few days later I realized that I live in a world with electric stairs. So I decided to embroider some electric scales. Also the “Futiles” series: I embroidered plants, corals, sea objects on plastic bags. The sensitivity of the embroidery and the fragility of the plant it invokes, contrasts with the polluting banality of the material on which it is embroidered, the plastic bag. When you drill a plastic bag with an embroidery needle, there is always a bit of tension because the plastic bag can tear at any time, it becomes vulnerable and threatened like the plant species that are embroidered on it. intensifies the preciousness of embroidery and what it represents.

With the embroidery on the plastic bag you give a value, a new beauty to something that would otherwise be thrown away. What are your emotions about it?

It is the question of time that fascinates me. A plastic bag lives more or less 400 years. I can embroider over in 2 or 3 months. It only takes a second to be thrown away. How long does a species take to appear? Or to disappear? For me, embroidery is like an act of resistance. In the world we are living in, everything is going fast. Embroidering is taking my time in contrast to this world where everything goes fast. To embroider means to return to myself, it is an act of meditation. This is why I use this technique. I once embroidered a ship while I was on a beach in Madagascar. Next to me there was a man who was building a sailboat with nails and hammer and children who were building small floating boats with plastic and wood bags. I knew that my embroideries would take me a few months of work while he would take 15 years to build his boat and for the children it was almost instantaneous. Time for that man, time for the child and the time I was dedicating to my work. Each of us has his time. Embroidery is a moment for me. The act of embroidery is to find beauty where I can’t find it. Like industrial buildings. I try to make them beautiful.

Are there any other series you’ve done that show a strong contrast?

For example, in the series «Health», each element bears witness to the ambivalence of the world in which we live. The tradition of embroidery is linked to the modernism of the subjects represented. The embroidered design of a factory compares the industrial to the manual. A construction crane embroidered on a handkerchief with floral motifs juxtaposes the urban with nature but also printing and embroidery. A stone wall balances between the finesse of the embroidery and the brutality of what it represents. A handkerchief is a fabric that already has a story, an intimacy. Each embroidery has a backhand, a place and reads all the oppositions it reveals. In the very act of embroidery, there is already a journey, a circular journey between the visible front and the back which is the foundation of the embroidery. That’s where everything has been played since the nodes blocked it, but they don’t show it. The needle penetrates – which is a violent act in itself – but lets go and watch what is going on behind to recreate another reality. Support becomes a frontier that must be transcended to unify the opposite and the place, what is hidden and what can be seen. Sewing allows me to abolish this boundary and to travel between polarities, their ambivalences and to ask me about what connects them. Because, as Flaubert says, “it is not the pearls that make the necklace, it is the thread”.

Do you have a mentor who inspires you?

I love popular art, hand painting, art that should not be art. My teacher is nature. I am also interested in old books, especially botanical ones. I was also influenced by Bruno Munari. He had a rather serious form of lightness in his work. His approach is generous: it gives the reader great autonomy so that he can appropriate the work and create his experience. Both his workshops and his works are part of a true educational reflection. As a designer, he thought of the book as an object of artistic mediation. The educational work of photographer Tana Hoban also influenced me a lot. As she says so well “ideas come along the way”. What I find interesting in his work is the way in which educational concepts construct the book and express contrasts.

What are your plans for the future?

Now I’m working on a book after an artist residency that I did at the Indian publishing house Tara Books. I am already thinking about a new collection for Facteur Céleste and I also have a series of proposals for exhibitions.

What book are you reading now?

The threads of the heart written by Carole Martinez.

What advice would you give to young people wishing to pursue an artistic career?

Follow your dreams and your heart.