Hessie

Born in 1936 in Santiago, Cuba, Carmen Lydia Đurić , known by her artist name Hessie, was a self-taught textile artist who lived in France until her recent passing. She combined embroidery and collage to create a new language that incorporated domestic materials found in the home, such as paper, clothing, hair, dust, fabric, buttons and toys.

Hessie was part of a group of women artists playing with figuration and abstraction, presence and absence, to develop a highly complex vocabulary disproving embroidery’s reputation as a simplistic and archaic practice.