‘Bouquet 23’ floral textile panel by Elodie Blanchard

This superb textile panel was made by Elodie Blanchard, a French/ American contemporary artist and designer. ‘Bouquet 23’ comes from Blanchard’s ‘Bouquet’ collection in which she uses discarded materials in new and unexpected ways to create contemporary artworks.

Hand-made by Blanchard in her studio, the piece is crafted from repurposed scraps of textiles, plastic bags, mylar balloons, and snack packaging. All the carefully cut pieces are layered and stitched together to portray a charming floral composition. A combination of realistic and abstract representations of the natural world, the hanging textile panel depicts various shapes of flowers amongst foliage. The gold and silver of the snack packaging and the mylar balloons add a shimmering and eye-catching detail. The various stitching methods and types add interest to the composition and accentuate the detailing of the flowers and leaves. Some parts of the piece are three-dimensional such as the stigma in the pink flower in the bottom right. The piece is polychrome, with a mix of bright and muted colours such as green, brown, yellow, red, purple and blue.

The artist reuses materials, which would have been thrown away, making a positive impact on the environment, yet also highlighting issues related to the throwaway culture so predominant in contemporary times.

The panel is framed in an elegant wooden frame.

Elodie Blanchard is an artist and designer based in New York. She has created collections for offices, public spaces, galleries, and institutions in various cities around the USA, such as New York or Chicago. Her work focuses on material exploration and repurposing of materials no longer needed. Through the process of repetition and creative thinking she transforms commonplace materials and objects into collectible works of art, such as this magnificent floral panel in Mayfair Gallery’s collection.