Anouk Desloges creates highly crafted and distinctly mysterious textile art that most often than not relies on the practice of embroidery. The embroidery itself is removed from its traditional support to adorn plastic and metal, with the finished pieces presenting symbolic allegories and literary allusions.
“Making things has always been of second nature to me, and something that gave my young life some sense and focus,” shared Desloges in an interview with Textile Artist. “I first considered art as a career path once I discovered the work of the surrealists,” she recalls. “I was fascinated by its mystery and how it’s open interpretation is, more often than not, what we want it to be.”
Nowadays, much like the surrealists, Desloges’ pieces aim to explore the representation of abstract concepts, as she attempts to illustrate what doesn’t exist in a physical form. The interpretations become intimate and filled with imagination, at once vulnerable, fragile, and precious.
“Interestingly enough, my entire academic background is in sculpture,” admits Desloges. Being trained as a sculptor, she juxtaposes the materials and techniques to create an illusion of depth and to reconsider the definition of two and three-dimensional compositions. “Even though I have no academic training in textiles, playing with thread has always been something I kept doing with no intention of exhibiting my finished work,” she says.
“On presenting some of my projects to my teacher Jean-Pierre Morin, who was and still is a renowned artist in Canada, he took me aside and said something along the lines of: ‘You don’t have to become a sculptor if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to graduate if you don’t want to. You’re an artist and you should do what you feel like doing.'” Those words seem to have resonated.
Based in Toronto, Desloges has exhibited in Canada, France, and Guatemala and her work can be found in various public and private collections across Canada. But you can also follow her creative journey online, via Instagram.
