‘Pope Joan’ – Medieval muslin undergarment, rice paper circlet breast pads – Julie Dodds.
“The rice paper obviously alludes to the flesh of Christ in Catholic tradition and the breast pads reference the myth that she had a child. The cotton red crosses signify stigmata and the pain of her situation as an oppressed woman, mother and religious icon.”
With our degree show looming, it is exciting and overwhelming. I guess like all of us I want to get it right, at this moment in time I seem to be continually consumed by my project, which is good but I really need to narrow it down and just run with it.
I have been making, printing and researching and whilst doing this I have been looking at medieval undergarments and trying to imagine what the character that I am studying would have worn to disguise her gender, and also taking on board her religious status of a disguised pope.