shedding at Gallery Puzić, Saarbruken (2024)
shedding is a reworking of the piece shedding femme from 2021 in collaboration with artist Agnes Cameron. An examination of the ways in which feminine archetypes around fashion and presentation can entangle and constrain us, even lead us to a lost concept of the self. This piece was currated by Johannes Birringer at Gallery Puzić in Saarbruken, Germany.
Fashion and cloth are an amplification of the persona. They hide and shape our forms to present us the way we ideally would want to be viewed. They are the perfect tools for an artist looking to explore a break from the persona and the pursuit of freedom. As both an artist and a human being - I look for routes away from constricting and limiting myself. I want to be seen beyond the deceptions of projected personalities.
A black square of cloth is hung in the gallery gallery. Throughout 3-4 hours, I attempted to slowly cut my way out of it, one small hole at a time. The piece ended upon removing the dress at its centre, from the curtain of fabric. The audience was welcome to come up and look through the small holes that I created. The dress and its design was created by Inflationary Assets, a small Community Interest Company in the UK run by artist Agnes Cameron.
The sound of this piece is twofold. As I cut small holes in the dress, there is a microphone inside that takes that sound and delivers it to software of my design. This software does a process called granulation, which were heard through the fragmented sounds sent back. The other part of the sound is a pre-recorded piece of music I composed called internal_revolution.wav (available online), which will had its playback speed and direction altered every hour. The harmony of the two sounds forms the thematic backbone of the piece, conforming to the film music ideal of informing an audience of how to feel.
Some scissors were distributed around the space. The audience were invited to take them and cut small holes in the dress, by pinching very gently before cutting.
