Exhibition: La Chambre Bleue
‘La Chambre Bleue’ is a continuation of the research project ‘Salon des Refusés’, that Esther de Groot started during a one year Post Master Programme at the textile department of Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm.
One textile, various textile expressions; together they create an environment that invites reflection and conversation; like the Salons that were held in France in the 1600’s.
Catherine de Vivonne, the Marquise de Rambouillet grew tired of the obligatory appearance, pretense, and disguise of court life and began hosting gatherings in her home, the Hôtel de Rambouillet. She chose a meeting place centered around what was soon called "The Blue Room”. Her regular gatherings inspired imitators in Paris, who also insisted that traditional hierarchies of wealth, social status, and gender be set aside as attendees explored each other’s ideas.
The title of the exhibition is a reference to Marquise the Rambouillet’s ‘Chambre Bleue’. Esther has repurposed her hand-dyed textiles made for, and commissioned by, New Order Of Fashion for Dutch Design Week 2024.
Repetition, camouflage, and scale create a layered experience where visible and invisible, individual and collective, merge. The textile serves as a means of both physical and symbolic transformation, fulfilling both a concealing and a revealing role. The installation explores the theme of ‘otherness’, in relation to identity, performativity, and ‘masquerade’. A rendezvous for rejects, a place where behind the curtain becomes the main stage and where otherness prevails.
Biography
Esther de Groot is a Dutch artist whose work is characterised by an expressive visual language that is reflected through the intertwining of different fields as graphic design, illustration and textile sculpture.
Carried out in different forms, a recurring theme in her work is the role of the individual in connection to the practice of ‘keeping up appearances’ and the performative aspects of life. The concept of ‘otherness’ in relation to masquerade and performance can be seen as the key concepts to her artistic practice and research related to textile craft.
‘Salon des Refusés’ has been exhibited in Stockholm at Gustavbergs Konsthall and Index Foundation, as well as during Dutch Design Week in The Netherlands. Other works of her include for example ‘Nudes’ shown at Textiel Museum Tilburg and masks for Bas Kosters’ ‘Love, Fuck Yeah’ collection showcased at Amsterdam Fashion Week.
Supported by Cultuur Eindhoven