APRIL 1, 2024KATE MOTHES
“Bike,” cross-stitch embroidery, 24 x 48 inches. All images © Francine LeClercq
Francine LeClercq’s embroideries of surveillance imagery captures daily life from a unique perspective.
Analogous to pixels, the tight grid of cross-stitch serves as a fitting canvas for translating digital footage to a handcrafted form. New York City-based artist Francine LeClercq’s embroideries of surveillance imagery capture the tell-tale date and time stamps and grainy black-and-white pictures in intricately detailed, monochrome compositions.
Detail of “Bike”
Embroidery has long been linked to domesticity, usually created at home for the home as embellished handkerchiefs, tablecloths, wall decorations, or gifts. Cross-stitch is often associated with samplers, which makers—historically women—would create to demonstrate their needlework skill by stitching motifs like the alphabet, figures, their own names, and decorative borders.
LeClercq abruptly challenges this affiliation with comfort and home by using imagery from CCTV cameras, measures that businesses and law enforcement—and increasingly homeowners—employ under the guise of crime reduction. The artist taps into the pervasive monitoring that is ostensibly marketed as a security measure, yet instills its own brand of anxiety or hyper-awareness. […]
“SIKKEMA,” cross-stitch embroidery, 24 x 48 inches
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