In the work of Élise Peroi, fabric does not simply drape or decorate—it constructs space. Her delicate woven installations, often described as “windows,” hover between material and immaterial, between presence and disappearance. They are not objects to be observed at a distance, but environments that demand proximity, attention, and time.
At Frieze Los Angeles, Peroi’s recent presentation revealed the full scope of her vision: silk threads suspended like breath in air, layered into translucent planes that shift with light and movement. The effect is less like viewing a work of art and more like stepping into a threshold.
From Textile to Threshold
Peroi’s relationship with textiles is rooted in intimacy. Raised in an environment shaped by her mother’s work as a seamstress, she encountered fabric not as a medium of abstraction, but as a living material—handled, folded, transformed. By the age of twelve, she had already begun weaving, a practice that would later expand through formal training into a multidisciplinary language.
This early exposure remains visible in her sensitivity to texture. Silk, in her hands, retains its softness while acquiring structural purpose. It becomes both surface and skeleton.
Painting, Cutting, Reweaving
Peroi’s process unfolds in stages, each one altering the identity of the material. She begins by painting directly onto silk—introducing color, gesture, and painterly intention. The fabric is then cut into narrow, ribbon-like threads, fragmenting the original image.
What follows is an act of reconstruction. These threads are woven into new configurations, effectively dismantling and reassembling the painting. The result is neither painting nor textile in the traditional sense, but a hybrid form—an image that has passed through destruction to achieve a new coherence.
Suspended within wooden frames or stretched across open structures, the final works operate as layered membranes. Light passes through them, dissolving boundaries between foreground and background, surface and depth.
Weaving as Meditation and Movement
For Peroi, weaving is not merely a technique—it is a state of mind. The repetitive gestures required to interlace threads create a rhythm that borders on the meditative. Each movement is deliberate, yet cumulative, building complexity through iteration.
This philosophy aligns her practice with traditions where craft and contemplation are inseparable. The act of making becomes a form of thinking, a way of engaging with time itself.
The Body in the Work
Peroi often draws parallels between weaving and dance. Both are grounded in movement, in the choreography of the body through space. In her installations, this connection becomes visible: threads seem to sway, bend, and respond, as though animated by an invisible force.
The viewer, moving around and through the work, becomes part of this choreography. Space is no longer static; it is activated by presence.
Visibility, Emptiness, and the Poetics of Air
The Presence of Absence
A central tension in Peroi’s work lies between visibility and emptiness. Her woven surfaces are porous, allowing glimpses of what lies beyond. This transparency destabilizes perception—what appears solid dissolves upon closer inspection.
Rather than filling space, her installations articulate it. Emptiness becomes a material in its own right, shaping the viewer’s experience as much as the threads themselves.
Architecture in Motion
Despite their fragility, Peroi’s works possess a distinct architectural quality. At Frieze Los Angeles, her monumental installation—composed of stacked structures draped in fine silk strands—suggested a building in flux. The threads, moving subtly with air currents, transformed rigid forms into living systems.
This interplay between structure and fluidity defines her practice. Architecture is not fixed; it breathes, shifts, and responds.
A Medium with History
Weaving carries a deep historical resonance, tied to traditions of labor, storytelling, and transmission. Peroi engages with this legacy not through imitation, but through reinterpretation. She acknowledges the medium’s past while extending its possibilities into contemporary space.
Her works embody this continuity. Each thread carries the memory of its material origin, its transformation, and its place within a larger structure.
Beyond the Object
Peroi resists the idea of the artwork as a finished entity. For her, the process—the painting, cutting, weaving—is as significant as the final form. This perspective shifts attention from product to experience, from completion to becoming.
A Space to Pass Through
Élise Peroi’s woven installations invite a different mode of seeing—one that is slower, more attentive, and attuned to subtle shifts. They exist at the intersection of art and environment, were material dissolves into atmosphere.
In these delicate constructions of silk and light, space itself becomes visible. Threads trace invisible boundaries, forming passages that are less about arrival than about movement. Each work opens a quiet invitation: to look, to linger, and to pass through.