25th – 31st August 2025
In the Launderette ..afterwards
This residency gave me a very welcome, physical space in which to pull together, undo, remake and display work I had started on a residency in France in May and developed over the summer. In a larger and clearer space than my studio I could see what I had already done and what I would like to do. I could be playful, set up new relationships between different parts of the whole and allow each piece to find its place
Working with paper dress patterns meant the drawings all related to the body; some as completed dresses, some as deconstructed 2-dimensional drawings, and others as something in between. As I worked on and rearranged these figures or figure parts, I could not completely escape the idea of relationships between them that might be familial.
Using the kind of paper which is essentially expendable and seen as only the beginning of a more permanent process (i.e. dressmaking) let me experience its fragility. Paper patterns grow darker as they age, feeling skin-like. To make the flimsy pattern pieces more permanent I painted them with thinned white distemper before sewing. Even so, the paint often cracked and flaked reminding me of the way skin ages. I liked the idea of taking clothes to a space that had once been a launderette but of course water would completely destroy these fragile clothes.