Aude Bertrand: Embracing Your Influences
PROJECT: DAM CHAIR, 2020
WORDS: EIMEAR RYAN
This project was a commissioned design piece for Amelie Maison d’art, a gallery in Paris 9éme. I presented 3 sketches of statement armchairs of which they chose one, the ‘Dam chair’ to be created and displayed. I decided to do a design collaboration, even though trusting someone new can be a big challenge. This was the first design whereby I had incorporated upholstery and a concrete element. The important lesson I took from this project was to collaborate with others, share skills, and ask for help instead of struggling alone on a project.
Collaborate, Share, Ask
Collaboration between designers can be so enriching, enabling both parties to learn and progress in their own prospective processes and are pushed to consider a different way of doing things. It’s easy to get protective of your designs and want to be in control of the whole process. I am used to wood and to my father as the maker. Trusting someone new to realise design was a big challenge.
I decided to collaborate with a friend and great designer Alfredo Lopez of Owl Studio. I know and love Alfredo’s work so it made for a perfect fit. He brought so much more to the project! We bounced ideas off one another for form, materials, specific details and finishes, pushing each other to consider new ways of doing things.
Films are such well-thought-out objects, almost every shot and detail prepared months in advance—there is a lot to observe and learn from them. I have always pulled from films that I admire for their immersive qualities. Each time I create, I am not only inspired by things that have touched me, but I also try to openly integrate pieces of them into my work. Au travers du rayon, for example, takes its title from the film Le rayon vert by Eric Rohmer (in my story, a character also refers to Rohmer’s film directly). The films that Elie, the main character, chooses for his quest—Orlando by Sally Potter, Vif-Argent by Stéphane Batut and Heureux comme Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher—all meditate on the relationship to time and space in their own universe. These films both make an appearance in Au travers du rayon and inform the work directly.
"Being aware of what inspires and nourishes us is very important and in my opinion, a real support in creation."
Aude Bertrand is an illustrator and author of comics based in the south of France. She graduated with a degree in film and audiovisual studies, and her deep love of cinema defines her aesthetic, sense of narration and the themes she often pursues—the everyday, summer, the concept of waiting and a certain surrealism. In addition to her illustration work, she co-founded Les 11%, a project that champions women filmmakers through a blog and popular Instagram account.
