Anne von Freyburg: Reimagining Decoration

*Beauty is a Beast* (After Boucher, Venus and Mars), acrylic, synthetic-fabrics, spray-paint, tapestry-fabric, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 59 x 79 inches.

*I Want Candy* (after Fragonard, Girl with Dove) acrylic, synthetic-fabrics, spray-paint, tapestry-fabric, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 43 x 55 inches

*Who’s Bad* (after Fragonard, Venus with Cupid), acrylic, synthetic-fabrics, spray-paint, tapestry-fabric, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 51 x 79 inches.

Anne von Freyburg uses decorative materials such as textiles and embroidery to create works that challenge the tradition of painting. Freyburg embraces processes that are historically considered “craft” in combination with references to the Rococo period, resulting in visually rich, complex tapestries that reclaim the feminine history of decoration.

How did your creative journey begin?

I can call myself very fortunate to have both parents working in the arts, and who always supported me on my creative journey. My mum was a drawing teacher at an art school in Holland, and I remember very well the times when I was a child that I joined her figure drawing evening classes. I was fascinated by their drawing skills and I tried as a six year old to copy them. There I learned a lot about colour mixing, composition and how to draw the figure. In high school I had an amazing art teacher who spotted my talent for drawing and painting, something I didn’t, or maybe I did, want to hear about, but because I wanted to be a good scholar, I dismissed his comment. Painting and drawing came so natural to me and I felt so good doing it that I didn’t think it was something to be taken very seriously. Sometimes I think we take our talents for granted, and also forget that talent is just the starting point on a long-lasting journey and we still need to put a lot work into it. That talent needs direction, attention and practice I learned during the foundation course at the artschool (ArtEZ) my mother was working for. At the age of sixteen, and still in high school, this course was a revelation. I loved all the classes and felt I found my tribe. At the end of the year, I was accepted for every department and I chose to study fashion. There my journey and interest to mix applied art and fine art began.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My inspiration can come from everywhere, but it mostly comes from a reactionary place or something that captures my attention, because it is amusing, problematic or embarrassing. My work doesn’t have a direct clear narrative, it’s more about the sensation one gets from experiencing, the vivid colours, textures, shapes and form in the work. These sensations also draw my attention in daily life and feed back into the work. Ideas can come from mainstream pop culture, music/videos, art history, fashion, nature, movies, feminist literature or a visit to a gallery. In general, I am interested in how beauty and femininity are constructed through both, contemporary visual culture and within an art historical context. The ideas that come to my mind are filtered through that lens.

How has your work evolved over the last few years?

In 2014 I started my Master’s degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in London, and graduated in 2016. These two years have turned my work and ideas upside down. They really changed my perspective, and it strengthened my relationship with my practice and made the concepts behind it clearer. After graduation I felt quite confused and needed some time figuring things out on my own in my studio. In hindsight, I see that confusion is necessary for the work to grow and evolve, and one just needs to push through, but back then I thought I had lost it. Out of experimentation and taking risks, the textile paintings came to life, and that is where I am now. It was important to make time to rethink everything and take all the noise out of my head and work. I also learned that one has to make a bold decision sometimes and to follow the gut feeling. This reinventing of my work was a real process. People tend to think creating and making art is all fun and games, but challenging yourself, letting go and stepping out of your comfort zone is often discomforting and painful. Like building muscles at the gym, you need to push through and then you will see the result. I think one just needs to love the art workout in the studio every day. Visually, my work went from grey scale hand-embroidered, painted and stretched canvases to large mixed media collages with colourful marble ink technique paintings, to the now all over fabric wall-hangings with hand-dyed fringes. For me it is vital to develop my practice in new directions and try out ideas within the context of my work. That is why I started making soft sculptures during my time at PLOP residency in London. At the moment I am making work for my solo show at HOFA Gallery, London, where I am creating a large scale wall installation, around 3 x 2.5m. It has an abundance of painted fringes and embellished pieces. It is my take on the painting ‘The Swing’ by Fragonard’ that I made into smaller scattered fragments as if the work was falling apart.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?

My studio is in South London and commuting from where I live takes more or less an hour. In the early morning I mostly do admin things, like writing e-mails, applying for open-calls or write interviews. Since sewing is the biggest part of my work, which I can do from home by using an embroidery frame, I spend 60 per-cent of the time at home, and the other time I work in the studio making the painting and collaging fabrics onto the painted canvas. When I arrive in the studio I immediately start on collaging. If it’s a new painting, then I first gather all the fabrics that I need for that particular piece, which is mostly picked by colour, texture and print subject. The process of collaging is very intuitive and organic. I pick and choose, pin a piece and maybe later I see a better part and replace it or not. It is really just try and error. Collaging with fabric is the part of the process that is most creative and which I love doing the most. There are also days that I’m working on the computer, scrolling through the Internet to find new Rococo paintings to manipulate in Photoshop. I use Photoshop filter tools to change the colours and shape of the old masters’ paintings. Here I create the blueprint, which functions as the reference for the painting. Photoshop is a great tool to try out ideas of colour, shape, and to think about the more formal aspect of the painting.

Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?

As I mentioned earlier, art school and my master’s degree definitely impacted the content and visual aspect of the work the most. Art residencies have as well contributed to making concepts clearer and my voice and work stronger. In 2018-2019 I did a year long residency at the Florence Trust in London with a summer show at the end. This year helped me a lot to get clarity around the concepts and aesthetics of my work, and healed me from my post-graduating blues. It was great to be in a safe space where I was able to try out new and bold ideas. It was really helpful to have crits with my peers who encouraged and challenged me. It is maybe a bit obvious, but the pandemic also affected my work positively. I started listening to inspirational speakers and life coaches on YouTube what inspired me to work on my intentions and life goals. This period gave me clarity about what I want to make and what my needs are as an artist and even as a human being. It really awakened me and it gave me an extra push to really go for it. I got more organized and disciplined than I already was and looked for other ways to have my work exposed. That’s when I started writing to magazines which - to my surprise - were really open to doing interviews and publishing my work. It felt I was a part of a community again and people were interested in my art and the story behind it. I really believe that when you make a decision to completely go for something, whatever it is that you want, you will make it happen, no matter what comes in your way. It took me some time to understand that this mind and heart set needs every day attention and is as important as making the actual work. Another experience that impacted my work was winning the Robert Walters UK New Artist Award 2021. During the pandemic I made a series of textile paintings that I had wanted to create for years, but of which I was hesitant about. Not because I thought it wasn’t a good idea, but because it was a bit different then my former work and very labour intensive. In my mind I thought I needed to be consistent in one style. Also, I had my doubts about appropriating Rococo paintings, which can become a gimmick if one isn’t careful. Still, I had this strong feeling I needed to give it a try. That year I made five pieces that I submitted for the UKNA Award 2021. Shortlisted artists would have their work exhibited in Saatchi Gallery. This was huge too me already, and then I even won the prize. The prize money helped me finance new work that I could submit in other art prizes and open-calls. The outside validation and excitement that it was a good idea lit an even bigger fire in me to continue making this work. It showed me again that it is more important to be excited and feel empowered about what you make than playing it safe.

How has social media impacted your work?

Social media is a great tool to connect with new people and stay in contact with the ones who you already have a connection with in real life. Being consistent in posting on instagram brought me in contact with galleries and even buyers. I noticed that when I post about my exhibitions it attracts more art professionals than when I post about the process. This is how I have been approached by HOFA Gallery, London, with whom I am now signed in the UK and Greece. It was not social media that impacted my work but sharing my activities as an artists which impacted my career.

How does fashion influence your work?

As a former fashion designer, I have a complex relationship with fashion. On the one hand I am critical about it, and on the other hand - I love the fantasy it creates and its performing and transformative aspect. I find it fascinating how it can express, enhance and transform a person’s identity. I have admiration for fashion designers, like for instance Iris van Herpen, Victor & Rolf, Comme de Garcon and Watanabe. That is wearable art to me. Fast fashion, though, creates a lot of waste and that is a real problem. The opulent appearance and the accumulation of different fabrics in the work is partly a critique on fast fashion. There is an overkill of seductive and gaudy fabrics that one can see as beautiful or attractive, but in its quantity also as quite grotesque, and maybe even sickening. Then again, the different fabric scraps that I use refer to patchwork and the recycling of fabrics. A lot of the fabrics I use are second hand. Because my work speaks about society’s obsession with image and outer appearance, I look and am inspired about what people wear and what each fabric means in context of the age we are living in. Fashion reflects the culture we live in and communicates moods, tendencies and subcultures. For instance, pink is a really important colour again this season. It became a signifier for female empowerment and as protest colour against the gender pay gap and, of course, the #metoo movement. Pink stands for resistance through joy and represents new waves in feminism. Hot pink is loud but playful. This is taken over by the fashion industry of course, because female empowerment sells at the moment. Historically pink is a really interesting colour as well. By implementing pink in a conceptual way I hope to start a broader dialogue about gender and femininity. Black glossy PVC is a fabric that recurs in my work quite a bit, by which I refer to BDSM, ci-fi and techno club culture. Sometimes I need some techno kinkiness within all the Rococo sweetness to balance it out. One can say that I am turning wearables into artworks. Maybe the apple didn’t fall that far from the tree after all

Instagram: @annevonfreyburg

Website: https://annevonfreyburg.com/

Victoria FrySeptember 14, 2023