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Anne Hill BA(Hons) Fine Art RM 303 Personal Statement
My Life In Dresses
“Clothing is about who we think we are and how we dress to represent ourselves, and also about how we are seen and culturally defined”
( Nina Felshin : Empty Dress -Clothing as Surrogate in Recent Art ; ICI 1994)
I have always been fascinated by dresses - their colours, patterns, textures, shapes and designs, - the endless possibilities of transformation. Merely looking at dresses is for me inspiring and exhilarating. I have made work about the dress previously using paint on canvas and printing images of children's dresses. These were made in response to the death of my sister Irene. There was something about the smocking dresses that reminded me of our childhood. The work provoked strong responses from female viewers. Invariably they described in detail dresses they, or someone they loved had worn. In some cases, even fifty years later, every detail was clearly recalled.
I began to explore the idea of making new work about the dress using garments I had worn and loved, ‘rite of passage' garments, and to consider what would be a suitable media to use as a way of expressing the fragility of identity, the ephemeral nature of memories and also the fact that although this was my history, it was also the fashion history of every other female born soon after the second world war. I wanted my work to convey something of these elements - fragility, history and fashion.
I had researched the work of Annette Messager and Mary Kelly who both made work about the dress and this also greatly informed my work. Messager used actual garments enclosed in boxes, while Kelly silkscreened images on to Plexiglas. Their stories were of ‘everywoman' and her concerns. I was especially struck by the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Lacan underpinning their work. Lacan talks of “the real” - that the image (dress) is not all there is, there is always “something behind it”, a residue of memories and emotions. Exactly what I wanted to evoke with my garments.
I decided to use paper for it's fragility and ephemeral nature. I had intended to enclose my garments in boxes, but that would make them inaccessible and trapped. I felt they should be made in relief and wall mounted as exhibition pieces to emphasise the historical aspect of the work. I had been receiving e-mails from Vogue magazine. The well known fashion houses exhibited their expensive garments on the web surrounded by white space, so I decided to mount my dresses, in relief, straight on to white walls.
Mary Kelly made work about a white dress called ‘Extase' and I considered how my idea of ecstasy had changed over the years. I made five dresses to depict this. The first is blue and white stripes. It represents my eight year old joy at the fresh feel of the material and the butterfly sleeves. When in my late teens, a pretty sprigged cotton showed off my slim figure to perfection. My victorian wedding dress was beautiful, the bridal fantasy fulfilled. I bought the rather expensive maternity dress when expecting my first son - another dream come true. The last dress is somewhat different. It depicts my current idea of ecstasy - my darling grandchildren, photography and knitting, a pastime I've enjoyed all my life which is having a resurgence in popularity. The processes involved in making the dresses were labour intensive and repetitious but also delicate, creative and fun.
The absence of a figure in the garments creates a space for the viewer and my intention is that the dresses will be ‘memory triggers' and also evidences of the fleeting and ever changing nature of identity, perhaps causing us to slow down and enjoy being who we are today.
Anne Hill June 2006
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