Enrobed.

A number of things have occurred to me as I have been hanging out washing.  Each garment represents a day full of experiences & interactions...each has it's own story. Each garment is like a diary page leaf!  When each of these 'leaves' is hung on a line it can look like foliage wrapped around the trunk of a tree. They protect & insulate the trunk. They are like a robe....a protective cloak.

When I think of a cloak, I think of the feather cloaks made by the Maori people of my homeland, New Zealand.  An idea was brewing....I wanted to make a cloak of leaves....which are like feathers in some respects...therefore the place to do some research was in 'Whatu Kakahu/ Maori Cloaks', a treasure of a book edited by Awhina Tamarapa, which I am fortunate to have in my bookcase!!

In the days before white settlement in New Zealand, the Maori women would source their materials for making cloaks from the area around which they lived.  With this in mind, my first thought was to gather leaves from around our home & have a go at eco-printing with them.  Alas.............this was such an abysmal failure that I dont think I have even kept the results!

My next thought was to make leaf appliqued patches in autumnal tones. I liked the idea that the patch looked like a page (from a diary) & there was a connection to the leaves. I worked up a few samples &...well....I was uninspired to continue in that direction.  I put more thought into the process of cleansing...the removal of dirt, stains, evidence of whatever has been before....the hope of attaining purity.  When I think of purity, I think of...

....WHITE.  How would it look if I made a cloak of white patches, decorated with white leaves in the SHAPES of those found from around our home?? I'd found my direction!

As I started work on, what felt like, ZILLIONS of white leaf patches in various techniques, I came across the following relevant quotes in my reading;

'White is the harmony of silence'         Kadinsky

'White is energy-impulse, it is question & answers, it is total in its spirit.  White is something you endlessley return to.'     Richard Pousette-Dart

'I view patchwork as a metaphor for life; as individuals, we may feel isolated and alone, but in reality I think we are part of a larger composition that has harmony & meaning. '    Chunghie Lee

 

As I was making the leaf patches, I also spent time giving thought to how I wanted to decorate the collar, hem & side edges of my cloak.  I wanted to choose designs that referred back to the Maori cloaks that had so inspired me.

 Careful planning & lots of machine sewing followed.

Eventually it was time to start putting it all together & working out the best placement for the individual leaf patches. I lost track of how many times they were pinned...unpinned...pinned again elsewhere!

 At last it was finished, and the best way to see all the different leaves was in front of a window, or outside, as it is here, with the light & the trees behind it. The leaf patches are made from various white fabrics, including undergarments, shirts, lace table cloth, vintage linen, net curtaining and even the silk cloth used in a Hammam in Istanbul!!!! It is layered with memories & hours & hours of hand work.  I had planned to photograph my beautiful daughter wearing it as a cloak, but alas....the weather between the time of completion & that of hanging it in the exhibition has been very cold & predominantly wet!

Originally I had planned to have it displayed on a mannequin, but to have it open & hung on a wall like a hanging, allows the viewer to really SEE each leaf. It shows up so well on Gallery M's purple wall! I had thought to entitle it 'Enrobed in Silence', but decided to keep it simple, so it is 'Enrobed'!


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