Intuition, imagination, processes and materials are at the foundation of my practice that unfolds as I make. I have gravitated towards crafting communities for inspiration as their affinity for materials and processes is what motivates me in my own practice. I have therefore embraced the overlap between craft and art, allowing for the intangibility of my imagination to direct the material result of my creative practice.
I draw inspiration from the feelings of haunting and daydreaming, areas in which I can slip from tangible reality into alternate senses of understanding my surroundings: from layers of clothing, to domestic comfort objects such as curtains and blankets, to the insulated walls of dwellings. I create three-dimensional works that play with the gendered conceptions of ‘building’ and ‘making’ a home by contrasting sturdy and soft materials that are at hand, such as scrap fabric and yarn, household items and other remnant building materials.
I am interested in the ephemeral and the felt presence of time and memory held in material things generated through their daily use. The evidence of wear and tear is a simultaneous accumulation of memories and a physical wearing down in a concurrent expansion and disintegration. Focusing on the conceptual space of the home, I am interested in the contradictory feelings of familiarity against a sense of unease, allowing for ambiguous interpretations of these intimate spaces that house the body. I have cultivated a receptive attitude towards my material surroundings: ‘listening’ to the stuff I collect and allowing for an intuitive process of material manipulation. I think this approach enables alternative ways of reflecting on and representing reality, relying on feeling rather than fact. My artistic practice lies in feeling through a mismatch of materials, attempting to be still with the paradoxical and the whimsical.
I think of making in terms of cyclical routines that stretches beyond Art to craft and our everyday routines: deliberate actions and automatic gestures with which we structure our lives. I am a maker, drawn to materials, their potential for transformation and the histories that lie beneath the surface. In making I find the stillness I crave to create a moment for quiet imagination.
By collecting and pairing materials with one another, I play with formal composition and emotional associations. Cloth and clothing that has been well worn have a soft quality, a felt presence of the body that can be sensed. Whether the histories are known or remain unseen, I believe that there is a difference to be felt through these materials. I am drawn to craft, ‘soft sculpture’ and the domestic in my art practice in part because of this tactile and familiar effect of the materials. I find these materials to be grounding for the viewer who can observe my soft sculptures with a sense of recognition and curiosity about their own effect on the world around them.
I take pleasure in taking things apart, trying to get at what is underneath, uncover hidden secrets that lie beneath the surface. What lies in wait as you dig? Through these compulsive and repetitive acts of deconstruction I slip into a different way of seeing and understanding. Using deconstruction as a building method, I create something new where adding and subtracting become the same; uncovering while adding to the mystery.
Audrey D'Astous 