The final hours

What an experience - there are a lot of nervous people in one place all trying to be calm and help each other whilst we anxiously hang our work ready to be marked. It feels as though we are putting our whole lives on show because so much hard work and effort has been ploughed into some incredible work. I really can't wait to see it all finished and ready to present to the tutors followed by our families, friends and the public. 

Here are some pictures that show us preparing for the show - 

Plinths painted and wrapped

Sophia helping me to work out how to place the garment

My space

Tonight I will just add some final few words to my sketchbook; tomorrow I will take in remaining supporting folders, uncover all the work and then take Mikey to Bath for a very well deserved coffee and cake. 

The Photographs

I have been into the studio to take photographs of the garment. John (technician) was very busy but still had enough patience to provide various different lighting sessions for the garment. It is all quite scary now because the hand in date is fast approaching. 

I have chosen two images - one front and the other side view that capture the essence of my idea.  The Japanese Gampi tissue  night gown will not be worn but the possibility that it could be  creates an absence. And by showing this I hope that the garment will allude to the issue that when emotional damage happens through loss, it is so often worse at night, but also, it is the time when thinking can occur and a beautiful repair can happen within. 

The use of light helps to capture this mood but also illuminates the design. 

And to work along side, the hand made book that is a record of peoples physical responses to damage but also the emotions that we can all feel.

Thank you to everyone who has helped with the making of the book.

A perspex hanger has been designed and waiting to be laser cut in plastics along with a perspex bracket to hang the garment for the summative assessment. A tube light will illuminate the work from behind and hopefully this will help to create a similar effect that I have achieved in photography. Now I just need to think of a title for the work. 

Deciding how to present the work

We had a group crit at uni this week and whilst I did not reveal the garment during this conversation due to the fragility of the paper and the lack of space on the tables, it was discussed afterwards at a tutorial. 

The decision on the hem has been made as everyone was in agreement that it should be scorched enabling it to demonstrate the technique / damage part of the garment. And conceptually it says that damage never goes away but does become part of life, but without careful attention paid to detail it can just become part of the invisible.

Another suggestion was to try and create a suggestion of form in the garment by finding a structure that could go underneath and help give it some depth rather than just hanging flat on  a hanger. 

An artist that helps to confirm this idea is Caroline Broadhead

Dress with black holes, 1999, Caroline Broadhead

One dress overlays the other, the openings are dominant; the part where we are able to take the garment on and off. Maybe the suggestion of things gone and things to come. 

Ready to Tear, 1998, Caroloine Broadhead

Caroline Broadhead's work offers an experience; her interest is in the body or its absence, its senses and its movements. Wearability is not the aim, the important thing is the possibility that it could be worn. 

So I plan to make a hanger that will help to create some space in the garment because  I want to suggest the fragility of human emotion, the absent body which has struggled with the inner need to repair after a personal trauma.