bio
Anaïs de Contades creates “contemporary art that you can't wear”
ONEOF HER WORKS
IS ENTITLED
IS ENTITLED
Asymmetrical Wo(man... so Off-White; they are blue
Anaïs de Contades introduces herself as a cosmopolitan artist. She is based in New-York and Paris and travels a lot. Her work that includes paintings, drawings, videos, assemblages and installations has already been acquired by some of the most important international collectors, such as Beth Rudin DeWoody in NY ant the Dassault family in Paris. Anaïs has become known for her performance artworks in which she wears her painted canvases at different fashion and cultural events (at Centre Pompidou during Paris Fashion Week, Frieze Art Fair New York, London Fashion Week at Tate Modern, Art Paris Art Fair, Café de Flore, etc.). These performance artworks illustrate her revolutionary vision that “art is the new ‘mode (( de vie ))’”™ .
For her new series “UN) (DRESSED” Anaïs de Contades uses iconic items from well known brands such as Chanel, Yves Saint-Laurent, Stella McCartney, Off-White as supports. She decomposes and transforms these articles of clothing to create assemblages, often using her signature red thread. Shoes, bags and other accessories become works of sculpture. The classic pleated skirt is one of her preferred item. Sometimes she simply frames it with minimum modifications, reminiscent of a Duchamp readymade.
The decomposition, transformation and reconstruction in her works are metaphors to her own life story. Born into an aristocratic French family that should have offered her a privileged life, instead she was ripped apart by the complexities of her family situation. Escaping the turbulence of that life she built her own since the age of 14. Anaïs is an atypical rebel and a contemporary romantic. She is a nomad and an open-minded cosmopolitan.
Anaïs keeps thinking about this formula
"ONE SHOULDA WORK
Oscar Wilde
Introducing the artistic line according to
Anaïs
HER STUDIO LOOKS LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN THAT OF AN ARTIST AND AN ATELIER DE COUTURE. Her works appropriates materials of fashion and clothing that she decomposes, reconstructs or transforms… You’ve probably seen her at the Centre Pompidou during Paris Fashion Week and at Frieze New York wearing her predominately red painted canvas, but maybe you didn’t realise that it was a work of performance art! With these performances, Anaïs de Contades illustrates her revolutionary vision: “art is the new ‘mode (( de vie ))’” as written in her deconstructed poetic style.
ANAÏS DE CONTADES PAINTING IN THE STUDIO (not wearing her canvas as she usually does)
> post scriptum
ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF FLEURSUCETTE
The fleursucette is a symbol which fuses the elements of Anaïs’ history and personality.
She is passionate about Serge Gainsbourg and loves his song Annie Aime Les Sucettes, Inspired by her way of being and her personality, “fleursucette” in French combines the fleur de lys {lily flower} and the sucette {lollipop}.
Anaïs took this as symbol for her persona. More than a logo, it is a signature for her work which combines her heritage and her contemporary outlook. The fleur de lys element is derived from her family crest dating back to the 17th century. This indicates that her noble ancestors served the kings of France at the highest levels. The sucette represents her child-like “magic” and her rebellious nature within the milieu from which she came. Beyond the symbol, fleursucette represents a counter cultural movement. It’s a rebellion against the superficial aspects of “pop culture”. A fleursucette is a girl or woman who shares Anaïs’ philosophy and her search for true beauty. Instead of trying to be who everyone wants her to be, she’s a free-spirited, contemporary romantic.
