To convey the vulnerability of intimate stories and secrets, I spent roughly three years collecting antique and vintage undergarments. These were everything from Victorian-era bloomers, to tattered 1920’s slips, girdles from the 1950’s, and other such underpinnings- from both specialty shops that sometimes provided history for the garment (a camisole dated to 1890, for instance) as well as regional and national thrift shops from as close to my house as 10 streets away, to items obtained from shops in Seattle, Chicago and parts of Florida as well as a few special things obtained in London and Parisian shops.
Once in my possession, I manipulated these most personal effects through fiber-reactive dye, cutting and re-sewing, silkscreen printing, adding metal and textile embellishments, wax imprinting and various other techniques to make the individual pieces at once recognizable and yet completely transformed.
Into the folds and underskirts of these pieces, I hand-sewed cloth handkerchiefs onto which the collected secrets was embroidered. I invite and encourage viewers to be emboldened enough to explore the pieces physically and uncover the secrets hidden inside the garments for themselves. Such direct explorations play into the idea of “dirty laundry”: the “stains” we attempt to hide from others, lest they uncover something about us we prefer to remain hidden.
Suki Valentine - oct 2020
Suki Valentine
15.12.2020-30.01.2021
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