Conceptual Clothing

Jenni Dutton uses the subject of the female body and clothing to work with the concept of absence and transformation, exploring associations around memory through the mixed media constructions.

The initial idea may come from a certain feeling, or a thought, or from sensations evoked by playing with materials, combining them and letting connections develop until the essence of the piece crystallises.

The forms are built around body shapes and developed through a variety of processes. A feeling of unease or discomfort can manifest during the construction by combining certain materials with forms alluding to the human body.

Wrapped Figures

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Shapeshifting Series

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Corsets

The series of corsets emphasise the theme of clothing as a second skin, taking on the form of the wearer, stretched out and laid bare, as trophies or exhibits.

The natural materials also function as a protective layer in nature; holly leaves; mackerel skins; shed snake skins; bark from a tree.

Dresses

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Shoes

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Memory Dress Two with Cloak ‘Beautiful Things’

Memory Dress Two was made early 2010. I had been asked to talk to the Embroiders Guild in Bristol and decided to make my talk about the process of making the piece and to document my mother’s involvement. She had dementia and I was her main career.

I constructed the dress using layers of dress netting. To stimulate her memory and to pass the time, we spent ages looking through the old family photos. She enjoyed recalling the details of places and names. I started to embroider some familiar faces onto the dress. Mum recognised them all, so the project became about the place and significance of the family album and also about my place in the family as my mother’s health deteriorated.

Out of curiosity I made one of the portraits larger, this eventually developed into the series known as The Dementia Darnings.

After my mother died in 2015 I extended the piece by constructing the cloak using text scribed by my daughter during a conversation with her grandmother in 2011.

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Beautiful Things

Well, you can have colours, blue or white.
Well, red or blue or anything like that.
When the weather is nice and warm and all is alright.
Beautiful is Beautiful.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
The lights up there are beautiful.

Gladys Dutton. 10 November 2011