Audrey Demarre
Embroiderer
Paris, France
Taking a stance through embroidery
- Audrey defies tradition, creating organic wall hangings, cushions and other items
- Her exclusive focus on commissions reflects her ability to capture a variety of human experiences
- She is led by her passion to celebrate women as embroiderers
Audrey Demarre, an intuitive embroiderer, defies tradition by making unique pieces with an illustrative quality. Her pieces are influenced by the mystique of American Indian craft. Similar to a mapmaker, she captures the nuances of human experience, exclusively taking on commissions that range from traditional hanging pieces to cushions, shoes, and panels. What started as a side pursuit during her time as an illustration agent has now become a full-time commitment, in which Audrey collaborates with brands such as Dyptique and Le Prestic Ouiston. Her interest in representing women in the embroidery industry is rooted in its historical exclusivity to women, often overlooked as a standalone art form. Her upcoming book project features some of her favourite embroiderers, predominantly women, aiming to shine the spotlight on this craft.
INTERVIEW
I know I am not a 'proper' embroiderer because of my work’s irregular quality. People are drawn to that though. I may not have formal embroidery technique, but I am comfortable with that – in fact, I embrace it.
A hanging piece entitled Map of Tenderness, mapping out the different stages of a romantic relationship, which I created to look like a cross-section of the planet, like layers of sediment and magma, and so on, except they were layers of feelings and moments that make up the layers of a relationship.
Although I never actually learnt the craft from my great-grandmother Irma as we were born over 100 years apart, she was a renowned seamstress in Belle Epoque Paris, and she is very present in my work. I like to think that I have continued in her shoes with this craft.
Women’s stories and exploring the link to nature and intuition. For instance, I worked on a piece that was like a map of famous sites of West Coast America like the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell and I renamed them after famous female artists, such as Woolf and O’Keefe.
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