More Ritual

The first piece I started for "I Live Here Now" was "Silently (I Saw a Robin Today)," a piece about my mother using her wedding gown. The dress hung on a wall in my studio for some time before I began working and the day I started taking the dress apart, I tried the dress on. I had never done this before and had never even thought about it until that moment. It occurred to me that many girls try on their mothers' wedding dresses and I felt I had to experience this tradition, too. I put the dress on in my studio and took a few photos with Photo Booth on my laptop. I really love these pictures and I'm so glad I tried the dress on and took photos. I know this act was an important part of the process and the exact place to begin. I like that the pictures capture the serious of the act, as well. I felt serious when I did this and it made me contemplate my mother and the story of the dress and her wedding. Afterward, I documented the details of the dress and then began taking it apart. 

Please visit Flickr to see lots of pictures of the deconstruction process.

Thanks for reading.

I Live Here Now, Part 14: A Third Look

Silently (I Saw a Robin Today)

"Silently (I Saw a Robin Today)" is the first piece I made in the "Homeland" part of "I Live Here Now." It's about my mother and was created with her wedding dress, which she made back in the 70s. I got the idea for this piece while on one of my walks. It was mostly about using the dress as the material and it felt like a strong place to begin. My mother was happy to give me the dress which I hung in my studio for a few days just to look at. Then I got scared. I knew I had one chance to "get it right" and the pressure of that thought made me procrastinate. I decided to ease into it by deconstructing the dress. I thought maybe I could "warm-up" by taking it apart, getting to know the material as I worked. I also thought the process would remove some of the dress' preciousness and it would become less scary to work with. 

The process took several days with a long pause in between. I saved every thread as I worked and even crawled around on the floor to retrieve any bits that had fallen. As I worked I thought about my mother and how she felt while she made the dress. I also wondered how she came to choose the pattern and the fabric. These questions sparked an interesting conversation between us and I now know a little bit more about her past. Once I was done I arranged all the pieces on the floor in my studio and took pictures. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but after a few more days I realized the piece was in the process, in the ritual of taking the dress apart and of unraveling a memory of part of her life. 

In the following days I focused on the lining of the dress. I had been thinking about making a big necklace that when coiled up would resemble a nest and I liked the idea of giving a presence to something that is usually unseen. I cut each pattern piece of the lining into strips and cut these into four pieces each. I cinched the pieces into bows and tied them around more thread. I later added four gold bows, a subtle reminder of ancient Greek wreaths and diadems, and completed the piece by tying a single knot in every string. 

 Thanks for reading.