Véronique Buist

Véronique Buist’s practice develops through the magnified observation of perceptual issues from a variety of three-dimensional spaces. Her work proposes a distancing from the integrated and automated way of apprehending objects, space and time. By disregarding the usual paradigms of stereoscopic vision, the interplay of scales in the artist’s work encourages an analysis that is detached from the usual appreciation of volumes.

Buist practises the art of embroidery in a resolutely contemporary way, highlighting the marks of handwork that show through the material. Indeed, whereas traditionally this medium was aimed at achieving an irreproachable aesthetic rendering on both the front and back of the finished work, the artist advocates instead a valorization of the imperfect through the contemplation of revers, knots and accidents along the way. Through the accumulation of materials, embroidered textures and repetitive movements, poetic narratives emerge to reflect on the organization of space, the volumes that surround us, and the potential of the materials and paths that inhabit our environment.

Buist thus honours the preciousness of accident and process—both creative and intrapersonal—by proposing, through her works, a reflection on the perception of self, other and spaces from an inevitably objective point of view. Through a reappropriation of the ancestral technique of embroidery, the artist transforms the conceptual and plastic paradigms of this medium so long associated with so-called minor arts and women’s practices, demonstrating, in an assertive way, the right to artistic self-determination.

What’s more, Véronique Buist is fully involved in the design of her works, from the making of her paper, which is handcrafted from embroidery thread and recycled textiles. Here again, the artist distances herself from any invisible aesthetic pressure to optimize, standardize or correct perceived elements.