Dress Sculptures

A-dressing the process
The dress sculptures began in 1990's as a way of exploring the counselling process, and the common themes people shared with me.
The series of sculptures (some shown here) included:
Lost in the forest; The beautiful insect dress; The diving dress; A wild patience; A wild Anger; The map dress; Rising from the birdcage; Integrity; The spirit of friendship

Each dress took months to design, source materials, and make. They became an important part of my own process, incorporating poems or stories I was reading.

I had not intended to make heads for them. But, 'Lost in the forest' dress suddenly took an unassisted step forward. Her arms swung from her headless torso, which made my heart skip a beat. She had 'life' and needed a head.

All the dresses appeared to be standing in their own power. I became fascinated by their animation.

When creating the Wild anger dress, I crawled into the chicken wire frame to fix images inside the dress. My hair and clothes became snagged on several pieces of wire. The more I moved, the worse it became, and I was stuck for almost 2 hours. Being stuck in anger gave way to laughter -and then I was free. It was during this event that I affirmed what I had always known: there is no divide between animate and inanimate objects.

And so puppetry.

Zenwing Puppets

Creative fun with heart-wisdom