LE BAS, Delaine; SPÖRR, Bettina (ed.)
Delaine Le Bas

Delaine Le Bas works in a transdisciplinary way: she combines visual, performative and literary practices to create an artistic oeuvre that encompasses all areas of life. In her works she deals with many facets, political as well as private and emotional, which involve belonging to the Rom*nja people, their history and rich cultural heritage. On the one hand, she uses “classical” forms and techniques, especially textile techniques such as embroidery and appliqué, which, in conjunction with large-flowered fabrics and fantastic imagery, are immediately associated with clichés and stereotypes. At the same time, Le Bas subverts her own decorative aesthetic by openly exploring her struggles, thus defying stereotypical limitations.

This publication accompanied Le Bas’s 2023 exhibition at Secession, Incipit Vita Nova. Here Begins The New Life/A New Life Is Beginning. It includes an essay by Stephen Ellcock in which he exemplifies the spiritual and mythological references in the artist’s work and in particular her references from Greek mythology and ancient Egyptian death cults. Francesca Gavin conducted a conversation with Le Bas in which they discuss the context of the exhibition, the process of creation, and the background of the current works. 

The book’s graphic design plays with numerous motifs from the artist’s sketchbooks, which are animated by seers and chimeras, goddesses and mythical creatures, and also feature numerous references to Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. A silkscreen on the cover, attached with black tape, replaces the dustjacket and is Le Bas’s artistic intervention for the book. It is an image of a female torso that happens to look like the Stone-Age fertility goddess Venus of Willendorf and also comes from a sketchbook. [publishers’ note]

Published by Secession, 2023
Design by Sabo Day
Artists' Books