Disembodied Garments - The Essence Of Memory
I create sculpture, mixed-media and cast metal. I combine feminine attire with other non-traditional materials, incorporating ideas that began germinating in my childhood and resurfaced in the early 1970s when I was a student at Cal-Arts.
My work is very much about memories, mostly from my childhood. I would often spend time alone, playing with twigs and flowers, imagining them to be grand ladies dancing at a ball. My mother would take me to visit her friend Lily who lived in a very old farmhouse. It was like going back in time--in my mind's eye, I can still see the front door with its oval beveled glass, the very tall ceilings, faded rose wallpaper and lace curtains, so wonderfully mysterious!
My mother made dresses for me using her sewing machine--the loud whirring of her old Singer was a constant background noise. Her button collection was kept in a tin; I loved running my fingers through them. My first clothing pieces at Cal-Arts, for example: "Button Dress", 1972 were in honor of her sewing efforts.
My father died when I was nine and after that my mother took us to the cemetery for picnics. We would spread a blanket out by his grave, eat lunch and just be together. My sister, Rachel and I loved to look at grave markers and wonder about the people who were buried there. It is a source of deep thought for me: we are born, experience many things, have feelings, deep desires and then poof--we die. What happens to all that we were? Memories seem to be retained in vintage clothing, photographs and objects from the past. I can sometimes feel it--an illusive but powerful essence that is the residue of forgotten lives.
For the past 30 years, I have consistently used clothing in my work. A “special occasion dress” can be a powerful metaphor for the cycle of life: new it is fresh and beautiful, worn with pleasure, then put in the closet where it fades and is eventually cast aside, very much like leaves falling from a tree in autumn. I work with actual clothing, transforming it with found objects such as buttons, jewelry, photos, letters, artifacts, sewing articles as well as natural materials: leaves, dried flowers. My desire is to create an expressive artwork that can be beautiful yet disquieting; giving homage to remarkable lives.
"An association lurked in every fold: each fall of lace and gleam of embroidery was like a letter of record in her past." From The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Nancy Youdelman, June 23, 2005
