Louise Despont: drawings as embroidered ancient tapestry

Louise Despont‘s drawings literally resemble ancient Persian tapestry and metaphorically work as magic carpets, transporting us in a mysterious dimension, at once mystical and sensual.

[  Italian version]

By chance, I am listening Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles, while being completely mesmerized by these drawings. They seem to fit perfectly together – song and images – for the same luxoriously hypnotic effect they have on me.

The pencil’s marks in Despont‘s drawings transmute into endless vibrant wires and waves, while the musical chords of the song fluctuate as if they had no beginning and no end. Just like the lyrics of the song.

Turn off your mind, relax
And float down stream
It is not dying
It is not dying

Lay down all thought
Surrender to the void
It is shining
It is shining

That you may see
The meaning of within
It is being
It is being

That love is all
And love is everyone
It is knowing
It is knowing

That ignorance and hate
May mourn the dead
It is believing
It is believing

But listen to the
Color of your dreams
It is not living
It is not living

Or play the game
Existence to the end
Of the beginning
Of the beginning

The daughter of an architect and a healer that works with plants, Despont conjugates the rigour and attention she inherited from her father with the maternal spirituality. And though using antique ledger book pages as a support, the grids and the geometries of her spirographic embroidery-like signs brim with organic vital energy. Inspired by Eastern mysticism, Tarots and the circus, these works ooze ancient wisdom but they also pulse with sensual vibrancy.

It does not surprise me that another of my favourite musicians and songwriters, Devendra Banhart, is an enthusiast of Louise Despont‘s art. In an article featured in Dazed and Confused (January 2012), he said: ‘Louise has an amazing ability to imbue her work with  an inner luminescence, something constant yet volatile, inexorable yet mercurial, held in harmonious captivity by the architecture of each piece. I can immerse myself and study every line within each grid, or step back and let the entire piece wash over me. These are blueprints to the inner firmament.’

Choose your inner soundtrack and immerse yourself in Louise Despont’s magic carpets.

Images courtesy of Louise Despont.

[  Italian version]

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