Élise Peroi crafts delicate textile sculptures that evoke the serene beauty of nature’s gentle unfolding. Her work captures a sensory experience akin to witnessing the subtle play of light at dawn, where the environment gradually awakens with soft illumination and the emergence of delicate forms. These ethereal weavings, stretched across graceful wooden frames, function as dreamy thresholds, inviting contemplation of the natural world.
Drawing inspiration from the historical European tapestry tradition, Peroi reimagines this art form in a contemporary context. While traditional tapestries often served decorative and insulating purposes, featuring intricate figurative scenes and substantial scale, Peroi breaks away from these conventions. She liberates her textile creations from the wall, transforming them into freestanding structures that command their own space.
A key element of Peroi’s artistic approach lies in her treatment of the textile itself. Departing from tightly woven surfaces, she embraces loose, delicate, and irregular interactions between the warp and weft threads. The wooden framework supporting each piece dictates its depth, with structural elements often extending outward at subtle yet intentional angles, adding another dimension to the work.
As one moves around Peroi’s sculptures, they seem to subtly shift and change, blurring the lines between interior and exterior viewpoints. Through her art, she investigates the interplay of emptiness, form, perception, and the constructed world, suggesting familiar natural motifs like blossoms and leaves against understated geometric designs or open areas within the weave. Notably, the frames serve a dual purpose, acting both as display mechanisms and the very looms on which the pieces are created, seamlessly merging process and product. Élise Peroi’s solo exhibition, For Thirsting Flowers, runs at CARVALHO PARK through May 23.
More info: Website, (h/t: Colossal).
