Armour, textiles and reflections

Armour, textiles and reflections

From September 4, 2015 to January 3, 2016

The Château de Chillon ™ hosted the contemporary work of Swiss-French artist Malou Zryd, compared with Renaissance and modern armor.

 

The exhibition presented an astonishing mix of coats-weaves and large-format paintings woven from metallic threads.

 

Born in Korea in 1965, Malou Zryd spent his childhood in Valais before studying various artistic techniques there. Ceramics and textiles become her favorite materials which she explores as a jewelry designer.

 

But how does she manage to mix fabric and metal in her creations? Malou Zryd recovers scraps of fabric which she embroider with metallic threads to create new works. Whether it is coats of armor or paintings-tapestries, each piece is an assembly of textile and metal intertwined. A rich dialogue is emerging: the age of the scraps of fabric with the contemporary work, the metallic reflections and coldness with the matte and warm colors of the textile. Contemporary textile sculptures, the coats of Swiss-French artist Malou Zryd transcend the function of clothing. The metallic threads make the fabrics too rigid to be worn and transform them into a bulky shell resembling real weave.

 

Between the armor presented and the coats there is therefore an obvious dialogue within the walls of the Château de Chillon ™. While the primary mission of armor is to protect those who wear it, it must also command respect and admiration. They are not empty metal shells: rich textiles dress them, feathers adorn the helmets and fine engravings give an appearance of embroidery to the metal. You have to impress both friends and enemies. Malou Zryd’s works have these same characteristics. A coat protects from the cold and more generally from the outside, but it also shows the wealth of its owner to everyone.

 

Displayed face to face, the artist’s contemporary sculptures and ancient armor interact with one another and reciprocate their roles – protection and pageantry.

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