For
this project I collected handmade knitted and crocheted blankets and use them
to make a dress. The dress is a representation of my own body; I made a duct
tape cast of my body and soaked the bodice of the dress in a solution of glue
and water in order to retain the shape of my body, but also a representation of
all the individuals that took part in making the dress by making the blankets.
I was interested in the labor that went into the crocheted blankets and how
they are so commonly discarded to a thrift store. I have a strong connection to
afghans them because my grandma is always crocheting something every time I
visit her. In addition to all of the hands that helped make this dress by
crocheting the blankets, my sister, boyfriend, and cousin also helped stich the
skirt together in order to get it done on time. The dress is made by many
different stitches by many different hands.
I debated a lot about weather or not
I wanted to include the Goodwill tags in my work, in order to show the life the
afghans had before I reclaimed them, so I decided to leave them on for critique
in order to get feedback from my classmates. The viewers did not respond well
to the tags; one student even suggested that the tags detracted from the
elegance of the piece. However, overall students responded positively to the
dress. Students read the dress as a figure rather than a wearable piece, which
was something I hoped to convey in the dress. Additionally, viewers identified
the dress as a sculpture and expressed that they wanted to continue to see the dress
continue growing.
I was enthralled by Beverly Semme’s
performance piece Petuna after
attending her gallery talk. I was interested in the way that the gallery
attendant could disconnect himself or herself from the rest of the fabric to
make rounds and blend back in afterward. The idea of making a large piece that
is not actually connected lead me to think about growing the Afghan Dress, or a future work like it,
by laying more similar fabric around it without necessarily attaching it. This
would allow the piece to be easily modified for specific sites.
