Don't You Dare Talk About It 2016
featuring Stained Dress, habotai silk, silk chiffon, and silk ribbon.
Curdling quiet sounds of steam greet me warmly as I set the wine stains into my laborious white dress, it’s sleeves caught under foot as they change to the deepest stinky violet. Where emotional labour and trauma connect to historical dye and fibre techniques, a performative body of work takes hold.
‘Don’t You Dare Talk About It’ was a performance of stain making; a process to validate memories of alcoholism and shame. Worn and sat on white silk, a steamer gurgling beside, I drank three green-glass red wine bottles. Every spill turned stain in the steam I guided. The remnants and video documentation form a new installation