the wardrobe project
20 dresses, 20 books, cabinet, maps (woodblock on kozo paper), 2008
The Wardrobe Project is an attempt to blur the lines between work and daily life, between the ritual of getting dressed each day and the rituals performed in the artist's studio, between the body and its coverings. Beginning in August 2007 and ending upon installation at the Georgia Museum of Art in late March, 2008, the work is a uniform that defines the artist, a daily ritual performed, documented and reflected upon.
The Wardrobe Project is a cycle of eight dresses, sewn, printed, worn, photographed, then printed again. Each dress is worn once before being irrevocably altered with another layer of ink; each photograph stands as the only documentation of the work as it existed on the day of wearing. As printed layers build up, imagery beneath is obscured, blurred, buried. Ink stiffens the fabric, making it heavy; solvents used in the printing will eventually break down the fabric. Yet ink also protects the fabric, makes it stronger: as layers build up the dresses become impervious to water and stains. Wearing and washing the dresses softens and fades the inks; the wear and tear that clothing endures leads to the destruction of the printing as the printing brings about the destruction of the clothes.
The body, both the vehicle for the work and the object of the work's eventual destruction, is explicitly referenced in The Wardrobe Project through the printing of images of the artist's body on the dresses; body clothed with images of the unclothed body. A frontal figure is printed on the front of a dress and on its back so that when the artist/wearer's back is turned from a viewer, rather than the artist/wearer becoming a passive recipient of the viewer's gaze, the gaze is subverted and thrown back by the facing figure.
Interleaved with images of the artist's body in The Wardrobe Project are printed images taken from satellite maps of the artist's home and the industrial city that surrounds it. A place defined by labour and manufacturing, it inspires an approach to the act of making that thrives on rules, schedules, daily rituals and documentation. Manual labour, implicit in the repetitive acts of cutting, sewing, and printing of the dresses, is made explicit in the cut of the dresses themselves, their simple lines, bib fronts and large pockets calling to mind the classic work apron.
An exercise in living each day as an embodiment of one's studio practice, The Wardrobe Project is documented and presented via the internet for public consumption. The Wardrobe Project is an ongoing exploration of art as ritual, art as daily life, art as costume; it is a map for a way of living and a way of making.
To view the web component of the project please visit the thesis weblog.
To view the project photos only, please visit this flickr set.