Ysabel de Maisonneuve

Crafting the ephemeral

• Ysabel celebrates dance and movement in her life and through her craft
• She has practised textile making and sculpting since 1981
• She creates large textile pieces and bespoke designs for theatre, opera and television productions

Ysabel de Maisonneuve is a former Beaux-Arts student who has explored space and movement throughout her career as an artist. It was watching a spider weave its web that drew her to textiles, inspiring her to use thread to occupy space and capture the fleetingness of dance and breath. Ysabel studied the tie-and-dye shibori techniques in Japan, while also developing her own textile making methods, incorporating bamboo and abaca with silk. Her creativity and craft have taken her into designing costumes and sets for global theatre productions, opera costumes for Christian Lacroix, and a television film. She was also featured in ARTE's Reg'art de Femmes video series celebrating female artists. Ysabel is committed to researching colour and has shared her expertise with renowned couture houses Balenciaga and Loewe in this regard.

Interview

©Claude Weber

©Eric Valdenaire

Which elements or themes are essential to your work?

Both time and materiality are key to my work. Time is an important element in every step of my process: preparing the fabrics, finding the right colours, drying the fabrics, and then the time it takes to position the pieces in space. Materiality is also significant because I combine multiple materials in my work, such as silk, linen, cotton, wool, and fibres of pineapple, banana and nettle.

Was any project particularly challenging to work on?

For the sets of the Théâtre du Soleil, I dyed skies, seas and rivers in vats. The pieces were very large, up to 20 m tall, which allowed for a unique expression of fluidity and movement.

How do you choose which materials to work with?

My process is very intuitive. The more I research and explore a material, the more possibilities I find to work with it. Sometimes, my deep knowledge and familiarity with a certain material makes me develop almost a sense of loyalty or special connection to it.

What would be your dream project?

Currently, it would be about exploring with more movement, bringing sculpted fabrics to life. Being able to create installations where the audience becomes the actor, where the silk's movement would imitate the ebb and flow of the breath.

Ysabel de Maisonneuve is a master artisan: she began her career in 1981 and she started teaching in 1997

Works

©Ysabel de Maisonneuve

©Ysabel de Maisonneuve

©Sophie Tramier

©Ysabel de Maisonneuve

©Claude Weber

Where