CLOTHES FOR THE JOB
Today was 10th day of my temporary job, though it feels like more time then that has passed. Maybe this sense of having been here longer is there because I have stretched it out to 3 days a week, and so this is my 4th week. It has been an interesting process of being part-time away, as I still go back ‘home’ and have a chance to reflect on what has happened during the time at the University of Bath. These comings and goings have given me valuable spaces, so that I can emerge myself fully into the new environment and then pull back and re-group my thoughts, impressions…
I wear a specially made ‘workwear’ to my new job, which was sewn by my mother. I drew a quick sketch of how it would look then gave her the drawing, and from that she made a pattern and then the suit (in fact to my delight she made two identical ones). She runs a made-to-measure sewing business from her home in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and I have worked with her in the past on the projects Graduation Dresses http://www.margaretakern.com/projects/GraduationDr… and Radionica http://www.margaretakern.com/projects/radionica.htm.
The suit started off as a boiler worker suit, though my mother made it a lot more elegant, which has given it a more indeterminate look and I am pleased about that turn.
I have made my own logo and a label for the suit.
It is completely white, like a blank canvas.
In the morning, I put on my work suit, like it is a layer of me that I am pulling on.
The changes in me are subtle, I know that I am going to a particular place, and a specific actions will take place. I am going to work. I am going to be in public, seen and noticed more then I usually am. The whiteness of the suit in a strange sort of way makes it more noticeable.
I think of the ‘high vis’ jackets and how it in fact makes those workers even more invisible – remembering that wonderful project of Stephen Gill who photographed the workers http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio#id=album-30&num=content-674.
I go to lectures and sit in class with other students, who are dressed casually, though again even their clothes could be argued is uniformed on some level. We are all unformed from one point of view. But, some are more then others – and across the University those who are uniformed are: cleaners, caterers, security guards, lab technicians, builders, sports people and me (I might have missed some workers, so hope to expand my list!).
Whilst my new work uniform takes away the dilemma of what to wear in the morning, I am beginning to miss wearing colourful clothes (have noticed that in the time I am not at my ‘guest’ job, I tend to go all colours of the rainbow).
People look at me when I enter library, class rooms, coffee shops, I get looks which pretend not to be looks, quick glances, sideway glances, unable to locate me, curiosity about who I am, where did I just come from, what is my role here…
And in my new job I play many roles and in this performance I am highly visible, the environment observes me observing them. The looks are circular… and even placing each other into the categories is circular… In a way my blank sheet suit provides a more ambiguous space where it’s harder to pinpoint who I am, except that I am a GUEST.
My appearances in the suit though have been only one part of my performative action – I have spent a large amount of time speaking to people, engaging in interesting discussions, which I plan to include and reflect on here bit later on… It has been a rather complex intervention thus far, I am not entirely sure I can grasp all its meanings yet…
The suit, when not worn, hangs in the gallery space – when worn, the space where it hung casts a shadow with words stencilled in ‘the artist is at work’.
