More mulling this week. I am torn about whether to carry on blogging under the title of In Memorium as it relates to a specific piece of work made during a residency in a crypt.
The residency finished a few weeks ago – I am embarking on new projects which at first glance seem to have little to do with the title. And then something happens which convinces me to keep going.
Last week it was ‘bumping’ into the Cross Bones Graveyard – and unconsecrated burial ground in a Southwark back street which was for medieval prostitutes – the outcast dead.
Long-dead women seem to be following me. From the Hastings crypt to the Southwark stews – and now another piece of the same vast jigsaw arrived out of the blue this week.
I have been given a vintage wedding dress by the custodian of a shut-down costume museum.
I won’t name any names because the dress, which is bizarrely in its separate component pieces, was taken home from the museum by a lady who worked there a long time ago.
The piece is from yet another anonymous source – a hugely important part of an unknown woman’s life, yet being in parts it begs the question: was it ever worn?
Was she jilted before it was finished? Or was she jilted at the altar which might explain some of the frayed appearence of the seams?
I intend laying it out and scrutinising the structure – an exploration into the genealogy of the dress and its long-dead wearer.
