Memory Dress

Memory Dress One

Memory Dress One was commissioned by the American Museum in Bath for their exhibition ‘Inspirations; The Textile Tradition Then and Now.

I responded to the worn and faded Patchwork Quilts on Display. Working with my own faded bits of left overs I used old letters, maps, photos drawings and fabric to create the Dress.

After the exhibition The Atheneum Hotel in Piccadilly, London acquired the pieced it now is exhibited in their Country Hotel.

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