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​MODISTE INTIMACY

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My work is a gesture to turn our gaze back to a previous life by using collected paper dress patterns, hopes and dreams that have been locked away in an unused studio for twenty years.

I have used the 1980 paper patterns of the local modiste to produce representational forms celebrating the fabric of our community, visualising a world viewed through her eyes. She worked intimately with families, allowing insightful glimpses into celebrations and personal moments when truths were revealed, bodies stripped back and creations made.

‘As a child with a pair of binoculars, I used to spy on people passing in the street, I used to wonder what would happen if my binoculars could see through the clothes, and through the skin, and through the flesh and through the bones.’ (Hatoum M 1997)

While working with the discoloured, aged tissue paper its fragility became apparent. The inked directional lines bled, the fold lines were etched by colour distortion. The two dimensional sheets of paper were transformed and shaped into three dimensional ephemeral forms. When lit internally the hanging objects produced linear shadows on to the surrounding surfaces.
The remnants of past fashions have been recreated as an installation defining space within a darkened enclosure; the five tissue paper silhouettes evoking a connected society. ‘Modiste Intimacy’ consists of five objects. The small cocoon-shaped infant, pure of line and texture, is within the personal space of the mother figure; the two remain separate but within reach.

The cylindrical shape representing youth seeks private space within the group as a sign of emerging independence.  The remaining two adult forms complete the community. The larger structure evokes thoughts of a solid society paired with a purple tinged flirting object, both textured with the marks of life. The shapes lit from within accentuate the patterns’ directional marks referencing personal experiences leaving textured impressions of life’s journey.

In my work the two dimensional shadows reflect on the surrounding surfaces forming a strong visual bond between the paper and wire structures of the suspended objects defining the space between the shapes. The black cords attached to each object are an extension of the directional markings on the objects visually uniting the hanging works.

Future work will continue to contemporise the history and people who mouldered and developed the area in which I live. ‘Modiste Intimacy’ celebrates the memory of the local dressmaker, her talents, and the space her passing has left in the community. The role of the 1980’s modiste has not been lost and her memory will be rekindled through the construction of this sculptural work.​