Couture brings together art works and installations concerned with identity, materiality and memory.
Between 2016-2026, Françoise Dupré made art works and installations that were inspired by and constructed with family objects found in her parents home in France. The decade was challenging yet creative – a journey triggered by Brexit, the sale of the family house and later the move to France to settle in Orléans. The outcome is a series of works that engaged one’s sense of belonging, material culture and social history. While the practice continued to explore the performativity of making.
Three main installations were realised at the artist’s Haymerle Road SPACE Studio, in London. They can be viewed by clicking on the links: tracing Lace, 2017 Paulette et Jacques, 2018 courtepointe. 2019. Following her move to France, Dupré focussed on smaller works developed in series. They are grouped together on the pages: fil rouge, 2020-2026 and mercerie, 2024-2026.
Distinct elements of the practice are highlighted in the following pages: plain sewing, loops knots…, broderie anglaise, vichy normand.
The project’s title is borrowed from the front cover of two school exercise books/cahiers de couture that belonged to the artist’s mother Paulette Dupré (née Berthelot, 1924-2011).
The cahiers contain samplers, hand-stitched exercises done between 1934 and 1938. Examples of Paulette’s stitching exercises are shown on La couturière‘s page.
Began in late 2016 with a series of drawings based on lace and embroideries from her mother’s collection, Couture evolved from a project of drawing and stitching installations where the artist explored her memory of the family’s home through objects and textiles. Reconfiguring plain sewing and favourite popular printed fabrics, Dupré combined the personal with textiles’ social history and transnational connections.
Tissu provençal, 2018. Installation detail. Photo © Carl Fox, photography
Françoise Dupré 