Hobby Art is a large site-specific curtain with screen prints on patchwork fabrics that borrow photographs from old sewing handbooks, to bring focus on these delicate and repetitive gestures. Printed on classical checkerboards that remind of domestic textiles, these seemingly effortless images with a rough grain create a contrast with the meticulousness of sewing. The curtain explores shifts in light and color, using patchwork techniques as a metaphor for mending and building narratives. It pays tribute to these hobby activities – crafts between work and leisure, made to keep the hands busy and the mind free.

The curtain is around 1,50 x 5,20 m, and screen printed on mixed fabrics made of cotton and wool. It was created for the group exhibition 'Bobbi's Summer School' on view until September 8th 2024 at 38CC, Delft (NL), with works by Joeri Ista, Noa Zuidervaart, Marit Biemans, Juliette Hengst and Bobbi Cleij, curated by Jip Hinten, Bobbi Cleij and Coen de Jong. Project assistants: Garance Grillet-Aubert, Shana de Villiers and Beatrice Cera. (2024)

A feminist take on domestic crafts, in praise for tactility

The book gives shape to the visual essay ‘A Textile Room’ that explores the links between textile crafts, womanhood and domesticity, originally written during the artist-in-residency at Bucharest AiR with the support of the Mondriaan Fonds Kunstenaar Project.

Drawing on feminist readings and critical theory, the object transforms the practice of reading into a tactile experience. The text examines how folk garments and antique textiles convey narratives, the potential of hobby art to unleash creativity and define identity, and how to reinvent a new form of domesticity based on fertility rather than productivity. The practices of sewing and storytelling - putting things together, grasping fragments to create meaning - come together in a multi-layered object, at once dense and soft, reflecting in its manufacture the slow sewing practices that are its subject. The object is declined in two versions: one in beige color, and one with patchwork fabrics.

Screen printed book, cotton, hand-bound
Edition of 15, 24 x 18 x 8 cm, 106 pages
Graphic Design by Zahari Dimitrov
Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert
If you are interested in purchasing a book, please contact arianejudithtoussaint@gmail.com
(2023)

A feminist take on domestic crafts, in praise for tactility

The book gives shape to the visual essay ‘A Textile Room’ that explores the links between textile crafts, womanhood and domesticity, originally written during the artist-in-residency at Bucharest AiR with the support of the Mondriaan Fonds Kunstenaar Project.

Drawing on feminist readings and critical theory, the object transforms the practice of reading into a tactile experience. The text examines how folk garments and antique textiles convey narratives, the potential of hobby art to unleash creativity and define identity, and how to reinvent a new form of domesticity based on fertility rather than productivity. The practices of sewing and storytelling - putting things together, grasping fragments to create meaning - come together in a multi-layered object, at once dense and soft, reflecting in its manufacture the slow sewing practices that are its subject. The object is declined in two versions: one in beige color, and one with patchwork fabrics.

Silkscreened book, cotton, hand-bound
Edition of 15, 24 x 18 x 8 cm, 106 pages
Graphic Design by Zahari Dimitrov
Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert
If you are interested in purchasing a book, please contact arianejudithtoussaint@gmail.com
(2023)

Installation views: exhibition 'Bobbi's Summer School' at 38CC, Delft (NL), curated by Jip Hinten, Coen de Jong and Bobbi Cleij (2024).

Hobby Art is a series of screen prints on patchwork fabrics that borrow photographs from old sewing handbooks, to bring focus on these delicate and repetitive gestures. Printed on classical checkerboards that remind of domestic textiles, these seemingly effortless images with a rough grain create a contrast with the meticulousness of sewing.

Each piece is around 61 x 80 cm. Screen printed on cotton. Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert. Photos: Beatrice Cera. (2024)

Marquoirs are wall-hangings that combine antique samplers with screen prints of the artist. A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a ‘specimen of achievement’, demonstration or a test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The wall-hangings are a tribute to the young girls who stitched these samplers, in the early 20th century.

'Marquoir' (Lydie Perillaud)' and 'Marquoir (Thérèse Vignier)', screen printed textiles with antique samplers, 69 x 114 cm each, unique pieces. Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert. Photos: Beatrice Cera. (2024)

Textile Wonderland is a video that introduced Ariane Toussaint’s solo exhibition at Grafische Werkplaats (The Hague, NL), providing a sensory context for the works on show. Archive film material shows behind-the-scenes of textile production on a world scale, stepping out from the domestic and crafty setting to an industrial dimension.

The film is based on archival material, edited by Jonathan Hielkema and produced by Touchy Studios, 12'18. (2024)

Points de broderie is a series of five screen prints on patchwork fabrics that borrow photographs from old sewing handbooks, to bring focus on these delicate and repetitive gestures. Printed on classical checkerboard fabrics and a handwoven linen that remind of domestic textiles, these seemingly effortless images with a rough grain create a contrast with the meticulousness of sewing.

Screen printed textiles, cotton, linen and wool, around 100 x 80 cm each, unique pieces. Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert. Photos: Beatrice Cera. (2024)

Following her residency at Bucharest AiR, the artist creates a series of screen prints on patchwork fabrics that borrow photographs from old sewing handbooks, to bring focus on these delicate and repetitive gestures. Printed on classical checkerboards that remind of domestic textiles, these seemingly effortless images with a rough grain create a contrast with the meticulousness of sewing. This site-specific curtain explore shifts in light and colour, using patchwork techniques as a metaphor for mending and building narratives.

Silkscreened patchwork curtain, wool and cotton, 224 x 263 cm. Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert. (2023)

On the basis of observations of matriarchs and women in her own family, the artist develops a research on what (supposedly) links women to domestic spaces and care, questions the role of fabric in our human need for warmth and intimacy, and the place of domestic practices and textile crafts in contemporary art.

For her solo exhibition at the Grafische Werkplaats, Ariane Toussaint presents the various screen printing experiments on textile that she has been conducting at the workshop in the past months, including an artist’s book made of fabric and several textile patchworks. She creates site-specific textile installations that explore shifts in light and colour, using patchwork techniques as a metaphor for mending and building narratives.

Solo show at Grafische Werkplaats. Project assistant: Garance Grillet-Aubert. List of works available on request. (2024)

Taking tactility as a guiding principle, the exhibition explores gestures and practices that guide our bodies from the frenetic pace of urban life to the comforting and intimate space of our homes. How to propose a new and more positive approach to domesticity, better connected to urban spaces and our ways of working? How can our hands reflect hyperproductivity and its possible alienation forms, and reintroduce slow practices in our daily routines? The works on show propose spaces to rest and reflect on the movements (cleaning, watering plants, sewing, reading…) that accompany our daily lives, trying to reinsert space and time into a saturated urban rhythm; to confront and attempt to tame hyperactivity in which our collective unconscious is immersed, and develop an experience of the domestic realm.

Group show with works by Arthur Cordier, Valentino Russo, Gabrielle Stemmer and Ariane Toussaint. Curated by The Balcony in conversation with CAV Gallery. Photography credits: Valentino Russo. (2024)

Taking tactility as a guiding principle, the group exhibition presents two new works of Ariane Toussaint, based on a research developed during a residency period at Bucharest AiR: How To Mend?, a textile curtain specifically suited for CAV’s architecture and A Textile Room, an artist book made of fabric. The exhibition explores gestures and practices that guide our bodies from the frenetic pace of urban life to the comforting and intimate space of our homes. How to propose a new and more positive approach to domesticity, better connected to urban spaces and our ways of working? How can our hands reflect hyperproductivity and its possible alienation forms, and reintroduce slow practices in our daily routines? The works on show propose spaces to rest and reflect on the movements (cleaning, watering plants, sewing, reading…) that accompany our daily lives, trying to reinsert space and time into a saturated urban rhythm; to confront and attempt to tame hyperactivity in which our collective unconscious is immersed, and develop an experience of the domestic realm.

Group show with works by Arthur Cordier, Valentino Russo, Gabrielle Stemmer and Ariane Toussaint. Curated by The Balcony in conversation with CAV Gallery. Photography credits: Andrei Mateescu. (2023)

The work 'The Poetics of Space' comes together through researching childhood and learning processes and in particular in the combination of touching, seeing, and understanding in children's books. By following her explorations in tactility and her love of working with fabrics, Ariane Toussaint creates a gigantic book whose pages are in fact blankets. The book-bed is made of found fabrics that recall quilts and children's book illustrations; it is a sculptural and performative piece that calls for moments of tenderness and warmth. The work is part of a bigger research inspired by the eponymous book of Gaston Bachelard that explores home as a space for personal cosmology.

For the exhibition 'A Typo in the Book of the Self' Ariane Toussaint creates a site-specific patchwork inspired by traditional Bulgarian textiles. By being in dialogue with the textile book, the patchwork contributes to creating a space for the exploration of child-like tactility and comfort.

Installation view during 'A Typo in the Book of the Self', group exhibition with a.o. Harita Asumani, DAMO and Anna Haifisch, curators Yana Abrasheva and Vasil Vladimirov, at KO-OP / FIG. TREE, Sofia (BG). Project funded by Culture Moves Europe. Image credits: Veliko Balabanov / Ariane Toussaint. (2023)

With this work the artist follows her explorations in tactility and her love to working with fabrics. The Poetics of Space is a gigantic book whose pages are in fact blankets. It invites adults, as well as children, to play, lay, sleep and dream. The book-bed is made of found fabrics that recall quilts and children book illustrations; it is a sculptural and performative piece that calls for moments of tenderness and warmth. The work is part of a bigger research inspired by the eponymous book of Gaston Bachelard that explores home as a space for a personal cosmology.

Installation view. Group show at Art Au Centre, Luik (Liège) (BE). Performer: Tali Artheau. (2022)

With this work the artist follows her explorations in tactility and her love to working with fabrics. The Poetics of Space is a gigantic book whose pages are in fact blankets. It invites adults, as well as children, to play, lay, sleep and dream. The book-bed is made of found fabrics that recall quilts and children book illustrations; it is a sculptural and performative piece that calls for moments of tenderness and warmth. The work is part of a bigger research inspired by the eponymous book of Gaston Bachelard that explores home as a space for a personal cosmology.

Installation views, exhibition 'Bobbi's Summer School' at 38CC, Delft (NL), a group show with works by Joeri Ista, Noa Zuidervaart, Marit Biemans, Juliette Hengst, Bobbi Cleij, and curated by Jip Hinten, Bobbi Cleij and Coen de Jong (2024) // solo show 'Filling the Void' at The Grey Space in the Middle, The Hague (NL) (2022).

For the first time since its establishment five years ago, the artist-run space and collective Trixie has come together to collaboratively develop a work. This action was translated by the collective into a “patchwork”; a patterned network of relationships that constitutes a coherent whole. In this, patchworking is a metaphor for building relationships across scales; of individuals, groups and institutions, of forming a stable whole from patterns of individual components; in essence a necessary precondition for working and living collectively.

'Residential Aliens' is a collectively produced artwork by members of Trixie, shown at U10 Art Space in Belgrade (RS). The exhibition was made possible through the kind support of Stroom Den Haag (NL). Image credits: Marijana Jankovic. (2023)

At the outset, a man asks the artist to write, on his behalf, a letter to his absent sister. How can the photographic medium show the sister's absence? And the materiality of her evanescence? The work weaves a relationship to family taboo and trauma, which has no place in the past and remains a constant present. A work on the tactility of photographs and surface of fabrics is developed in an installation, that catches and obstructs light to suggest the unveiling of a secret, as well as in an eponymous publication that collects fragmented testimonies of the family.

Installation view at the Royal Academy of Art Graduation Exhibition, The Hague (NL). Photographs credits Ira Grünberger. Watch here a documentary about the work (Thomas Troadec/ Agence Catalpa). (2020)

At the outset, a man asks the artist to write, on his behalf, a letter to his absent sister. How can the photographic medium show the sister's absence? And the materiality of her evanescence? The work weaves a relationship to family taboo and trauma, which has no place in the past and remains a constant present. The book winds up the thread of the hidden narrative with a work on the tactility of photographs and surface of fabrics, that catch and obstruct light to suggest the unveiling of a secret.

Details: 90 pages, 20x28 cm, swiss binding with embossed soft cover, bilingual edition French/English
Edition: 30 copies (sold out)
Design: Zahari Dimitrov
(2020)

Rooted in socio-medical research on hoarding disorder, an open door reveals a piece of the atypical interior of the artist's great-aunt, Claudine, where a horror vacui hides family secrets that have been carried through the generations. The project unfolds into a book and a performative installation consisting of textiles and a patchwork blanket, giving room for the artist to host public readings. “What I’m going to tell you is no fun. I’ll tell you about death, suffering, trauma and pain. But I will also tell you about love and human relationships—about the kind of love that I have for my aunt, for my whole family. I can’t help but yearn for physical touch, for warm hugs that are almost so suffocating, but somehow feel so good. There is love in my family, but it is not expressed.”

Shortlisted for Kassel Dummy Award 2019

Read here a review about the book (Sabrina Mandanici, Collector Daily)

Design: Anna Moschioni
Details: 104 pages, handmade book cover with wallpaper and fabric
1st edition: 50 copies (sold out)
2nd edition: 70 copies (sold out)
(2019)

Rooted in socio-medical research on hoarding disorder, an open door reveals a piece of the atypical interior of the artist's great-aunt, Claudine, where a horror vacui hides family secrets that have been carried through the generations. The project unfolds into a book and a performative installation consisting of textiles and a patchwork blanket, giving room for the artist to host public readings. “What I’m going to tell you is no fun. I’ll tell you about death, suffering, trauma and pain. But I will also tell you about love and human relationships—about the kind of love that I have for my aunt, for my whole family. I can’t help but yearn for physical touch, for warm hugs that are almost so suffocating, but somehow feel so good. There is love in my family, but it is not expressed.”

Reading at Cneai (National Centre for Contemporary Arts) during the exhibition 'The Walls', Paris, (FR, 2022).

Other readings of this book have been performed at the following spaces and events: Page Not Found, The Hague (NL, 2020), Unseen Fair, Amsterdam (NL, 2019), Manic Words—Off the Page, The Hague (NL, 2019), Forgetful Number presents: a series of contradictions, The Hague (NL, 2019).

Rooted in socio-medical research on hoarding disorder, an open door reveals a piece of the atypical interior of the artist's great-aunt, Claudine, where a horror vacui hides family secrets that have been carried through the generations. The project unfolds into a book and a performative installation consisting of textiles and a patchwork blanket, giving room for the artist to host public readings. “What I’m going to tell you is no fun. I’ll tell you about death, suffering, trauma and pain. But I will also tell you about love and human relationships—about the kind of love that I have for my aunt, for my whole family. I can’t help but yearn for physical touch, for warm hugs that are almost so suffocating, but somehow feel so good. There is love in my family, but it is not expressed.”

Rooted in socio-medical research on hoarding disorder, an open door reveals a piece of the atypical interior of the artist's great-aunt, Claudine, where a horror vacui hides family secrets that have been carried through the generations. The project 'The Big Tapestry Where We Come From. Chapter 2–Claudine' unfolds into a book and a performative installation consisting of textiles and a patchwork blanket, giving room for the artist to host public readings. “What I’m going to tell you is no fun. I’ll tell you about death, suffering, trauma and pain. But I will also tell you about love and human relationships—about the kind of love that I have for my aunt, for my whole family. I can’t help but yearn for physical touch, for warm hugs that are almost so suffocating, but somehow feel so good. There is love in my family, but it is not expressed.”

Performative reading at Page Not Found, during Hoogtij#60, The Hague, NL (2020).

My grandmother is aging, her mind sometimes blows away and she looks fearfully gone for a moment. The fear of losing her made me realize I only knew her through her family role and ignored her as a being. I digged into her collection of objects, fabrics and photographs, looking for patterns I could recognize and that would help me to feel and record her essence. She saw me growing up and gave to me her passion for fabrics and small details. The photographs are both a tribute to her and an autobiographical investigation questioning the weight of family and the border between life and death.

Installation view at Nest, The Hague (NL) (2017)