Sunday, 19 February 2012

Commission: Jane Waggoner Deschner research


I came across the artist, Jane Waggoner Deschner who works purely with old photos, a needle & thread creating intriguing and unique artworks. When I found her work I first saw the clothes she produced by stitching together found black and white snapshots, so in a way recycling them. 


The perfection of the clothes in this image is incredible as if encapsulating all of the people’s memories in the photos within the suit. Even though how it is photographed is purely showcasing the work it is as if it is floating in space, in the past, untouchable created by the black void surrounding it.

I then discovered the images stitched into using particular words to mirror the scene or event depicted; I like the look of these images speaking to the audience, making you wonder what happened to them & the clothes worn. Jane Waggoner Deschner uses these projects to uncover & learn about our essential humanity & explores what has changed through time. 
By stitching into the images she is both destroying & mending, puncturing & suturing, wounding & healing but fundamentally turning one person’s waste into another’s treasure as they are found photographs, unwanted by a previous owner.

She creates ‘wearable photo albums’ which made me begin to think about what certain items of clothing are to their owners while one person may believe it holds an important memory which they don’t want to throw away, another person may believe it’s just a piece of fabric, not needed and therefore a waste product. I feel, a dress like a photograph may provoke emotions and memories but is it a waste to store it away as a memento rather than allowing someone else to create their own special memories with it?     

No comments:

Post a Comment