Saturday 1 September 2007

Degree Show Work










My work explores the curiosity I have about my heritage and identity, particularly the absence of my grandparents. Looking at the documents and artefacts relating to them, I embarked on a discovery of their complex lives, and how, coming from very different backgrounds, Poland and the Netherlands, they ended up settling in England. I have also explored my personal identity through examining the artefacts and documents of my own life through the photographic documentation of myself and my clothing on a daily basis. The work has evoked some very personal feelings, about the loss of my grandparents, and my confusion as to my own cultural identity. This led me to become more secretive in my approach to presentation and to investigate the ‘Hanging Pocket’ as a vehicle to convey my ideas. The hanging pocket was worn by women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was tied round the waist between the skirt and petticoats. It had many uses, both utilitarian and personal. “In the days when people often shared bedrooms and household furniture, a pocket was sometimes the only private, safe place for small personal possessions”. Using fabrics that are adorned with indicators of my own identity and that of my grandparents, I have created my own hanging pockets and document holders that provoke ideas of concealment and revealment.


www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/pockets/wearing/index.html

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