Bio
Half French, half Scottish, I live and work in-between these two countries and languages. Before obtaining my PhD in Fine Art at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 2007, I studied medicine for 2 years at Edinburgh University, and this has largely influenced my drawing practice.
I have been exhibiting my work in the UK and internationally (France, China, Finland, USA, Norway) since 2004.
In 2003, I founded and ran for 2 years an artist’s restaurant, Les 19... in Marseilles, France, creating and cooking monochromatic/thematic menus.
In 2016 I was part of Hidden Door in Edinburgh : I created an installation with my M(ob)ile, a one-mile long cord I took 4 months to French-knit, and which makes monumental drawings in space.
Also in 2016 I participated in the Space/Time (Magnetic North) retreat at Cove Park, and it was in the wake of this experience that I took the decision to concentrate solely to my drawing practice, up until then a hidden, secret activity. In 2018 I had my first solo exhibition of my drawings at the Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh.
In 2017 I was one of the lead artists in the Rough Mix residency at Peebles, working with artists from other fields (theatre, dance, music) to make an immersive, collaborative wall-drawing. I pushed my drawing practice into larger, alternative formats and a few months later I made a 5-day performance wall-drawing for Bonkers Contemporary at the Biscuit Factory in Edinburgh.
It was also at Rough Mix that I met writer and theatre-maker Annie George with whom I collaborated to create the theatrical production "Twa". I made projected animated drawings and drew live during each performance. Twa premiered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre during the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 and has since shown in Stirling and at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, as well as being selected for the International Womens Playwright's Conference in Montreal. Twa received Made-In-Scotland showcasing for the Edinburgh Fringe 2022.
In 2019 I was awarded a Royal Scottish Academy residency bursary which I undertook at Edinburgh Printmakers. I learned to etch and worked on a project which explored connections between drawing and printmaking, especially through fine line (etching, ink, ballpoint) and narrative (stories of double identities and multiple meanings). This led to an exhibition at the RSA in September 2022.
In 2019 was also awarded an Edinburgh Council bursary with which I used to further this printmaking experience through screen-printing and risography.
This year I have been awarded funding from the Creative Scotland Open Fund for a year-long project entitled "THEre is no END" : the creation and self-publication of a series of home-printed multiples (folded leaflets, zines, ‘papillons’ and other small multiples) which combine text and image. I intend to widely disseminate these through alternative modes of distribution, another form of ‘creative resistance’.
Awards
2022 Creative Scotland Open Fund for 1-year project "THEre is no END"
2019 RSA Royal Scottish Academy Residency Bursary, Edinburgh Printmakers
2019 Edinburgh Council Emerging Artists Bursary
Residencies
June 2017 Magnetic North Rough Mix Creative Lab, Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Scotland
October 2016 Magnetic North Space/Time retreat, Cove Park, Scotland
Solo Exhibitions
Nov-Dec 2018 Langue Etrange(re), Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh Multilingual Stories Festival
April 2018 (with)Drawing(with), Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh
Jan-March 2015 Picture in a Picture, Gateway Galleries, University of St Andrews, Scotland
May-June 2011 One m(ob)ile, Belper Mill, UK
Octobre 2010 One m(ob)ile, Cromford Mill, UK
Jan-March 2010 Embroidering on History, Pickford’s House Museum, Derby, UK
October 2008 Embroideries, Exhibition Space Harrington Mill Studios, Nottingham, UK
Group Exhibitions
Sept 2022 'Research and Practice', Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Feb/March 2022 Visual Arts Scotland Annual exhibition, RSA at National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Nov 2021-Jan 2022 Fotofiber, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, USA
Sept-Oct 2019 re:birth, Spilt Milk Members Exhibition 2019, St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh, Scotland
Jan-Feb 2019 Alight (Visual Arts Scotland), Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland
October 2017 Bonkers Contemporary, Biscuit Factory, Edinburgh, Scotland
Nov 2016 -Feb 2017 Sketch of the Universe, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland
June 2016 Art-Athina Art Fair, Athens, Greece
May-June 2016 Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
October 2015 Uncertain States, Four Corners, London, UK
June 2015 Art-Athina Art Fair, Athens, Greece
Feb-May 2015 The Needle's Eye Contemporary Embroidery, National Museum of Art Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
Oct 2014-Jan 2015 The Needle's Eye Contemporary Embroidery, Kode Art Museums of Bergen, Norway
May-August 2014 The Embroidered Image, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, USA,
July 2014 Chelsea Art Walk, New York, USA
July 2014 Draw In, Saint Margarets House, Edinburgh, Scotland
Mar 2014 Wexler Gallery, Philadelphie, USA
Oct 2013-jan 2014 Thread and Paper, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, Finland
May-June 2012 Amulets, Nazars & Evil Eyes, Queens College Art Center, Flushing, New York, USA
March-Apr 2012 Fibre Philadelphia Festival, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphie, USA
January 2012 Framed Gallery/Inc Tank Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sept-Dec 2011 UCD Un certain détachement, part of the Résonance fringe programme at the Biennale de Lyon 2011
Aug-Sept 2011 Through A Glass Lightly, Gocart gallery, Visby, Gotland, Sweden
June 2011 UCD Un certain détachement, Galerie Vog, La Fontaine, France
May-June 2011 Old Souls (curated by Sienna Freeman), Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
Jan-March 2011 Album. Résurgences de la photographie familiale dans l'art contemporain, Plateforme d’Art de Muret, France
Sept 2010 Wirksworth Festival and Melbourne Festival, Derbyshire, UK
June-July 2010 lkeston Festival, Derbyshire, UK
Sept-Oct 2009 Festival ManifestO, Toulouse, France
March-Apr 2009 Contemporary Flanerie : Reconfiguring Cities (curated by Vagner Whitehead, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester (MI), USA
May 2007 Eloge des différences, Galerie CROUS, Paris, France
May-June 2006 Déplacements, Galerie du CROUS, Paris, France
June 2005 Points de vue, points de contact, Galerie du CROUS, Paris, France
March 2005 Visages, Maison de la Tunisie, Cité Internationale Universitaire, Paris
June 2004 Passage(s), Sichuan Fine Art Institute Chongqing, China and Salle Michel Journiac, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
April-May 1999 Amiens-Weimar, Aller-Retour, Bauhaus, Weimar, Germany and Tour Perret, Amiens, France
Other Artistic Projects
2018 TWA, a theatrical production with animated and live drawing, in collaboration with writer and theatre-maker Annie George.
2011-2014 Member of the artist group UCD Un certain détachement, specialised in the production and sale of multiple art series, presented in a recycled vending machine. http://www.uncertaindetachement.com
Feb 2005 Invitation to create and cook a menu on the theme of the foot for the artistic project Podoscopie (Mathieu Verdieu), at the restaurant La Vie Devant Soi in Marseilles, France
2003–5 Artistic project: restaurant/artist-run-space Les 19..., Marseilles. At once a business and an artistic project which I ran for two years in Marseilles, serving thematic/chromatic menus and organising small exhibitions and other events (performances, musical gigs)
Commissions
2010 re:place intermediate commission, site specific contemporary art in Derbyshire, UK
Collections
University of St Andrews Photographic Collection, Scotland
D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, University of Dundee, Scotland
Northwestern Oklahoma State University Museum of Natural History, USA