Aselection of work from Swiss artist Xénia Lucie Laffely. Currently based between Lausanne and Montreal, Laffely holds a BFA and an MFA in textile design from the Haute École d’art et de design (Geneva). Her fleshy textile pieces playfully interrogate issues related to digital culture, vanity, domestic space, failure, consumerism, and lesbian love. Integrating snapshots and memories from her own daily life, Laffely’s work is infused with a sense of familiarity that is both sentimental and unsettling. Her latest body of work, for example, explores themes of melancholy and anxiety through Summery imagery of swimming pools and tanned bodies — scenes of everyday life tinged with surreal elements “like glimpses of nightmares.” A similar commingling and complexity occurs within the creation process itself:
“I devote deep contemplation to the making, merging modern digital techniques with traditional craftsmanship to disrupt sexist stereotypes associated with textile art. Through a specific process, I start by creating figurative digital paintings, patching together photos from personal and pop culture sources, that I print onto various textiles. Through patchwork, layering, embroidering and quilting, the pieces highlight the richness of a material-led approach to textiles.”
