Clémentine Brandibas

Clémentine Brandibas – organic embroiderer

It was during the open house of the Ecole supérieure des arts appliqués Duperré in Paris that I fell in love with art embroidery. I saw it as a practice that perfectly matched my character and in which the images I had in mind could materialize and flourish. With a degree in my pocket, I decided to devote myself to needlework to explore my sources of inspiration: the infinitely large, the cosmos found in Constellations, the ocean with Scums and the infinitely small with microscopic, natural elements that compose in myriads of small stitches an organic universe in all my works.

The creative process of Clémentine…

What Nature takes time to create, Man destroys in an instant. In response to this observation, the artist creates organic and dreamlike landscapes that she considers as paradise lost. Through them, she offers a poetic and idealized vision of a sovereign nature, free from human beings.

The format and composition of her works often evoke the point of view of an observer flying over distant, inaccessible reliefs, while detailing the molecular anatomy of the same landscape material.

In this desire to exclude any trace of humanity, she wishes to make us forget the embroidery technique and her own creative hand: for this reason she refines the textile material with patience and determination, going with subtlety to the closest detail.

Her inspiration: to restore the complex beauties of nature through different embroidery techniques. To do this, she uses the full diversity of embroidery stitches, some of which are not very common today and which she resurrects in a very inventive way, such as coral or spider stitches.

She also imagines inlays of unexpected elements: sequins, pearls, pearls, hammered feathers, or plastic, to ennoble her pieces and give them rich relief effects, close to the optical illusion. By playing with contrasts between dense and more openwork parts, she knows how to take her embroidered paintings to the edge of lace.

What are her current and future projects ? 

Based in St Jean d’Illiac in Gironde, she seeks in parallel with her creations to develop her collaborations with haute couture houses, artists and craftsmen “for contemporary projects where know-how crosses and enriches each other. »

There is no shortage of projects: consider more narrative paintings, inspired by snow or haikus, and create them in larger formats and participate in artistic events. “I like to show the unexpected contemporary facet of this craft practice”

Thanks to the Young Artists’ Creation Prize, its presence on Révélations in May 2019 will ensure its visibility and promote its positioning among prescribers, collectors and professionals who can lead to stimulating projects.