Dementia Darnings: Dresses In The Wood

'NATURE OF MENDING'

WELCOME TO THE JOURNEY
‘The Journey: Exploring the Nature of Mending’ is a new contemporary craft project that explore the layers of meaning, cultural and emotional, that are evoked by mending, repair and re-use. Highlighting and celebrating the mending to be found in museum collections are also an important part of the project. Through the ‘Commissioned Artists’ pages you will be able to follow the progress of five contemporary artist/makers; Jenni Dutton, Guy Martin, Paul Scott, Lisa Earley and Jacy Wall as they develop commissions to make new work around the subject of mending. Click here

THE DARNINGS

In her series of works, 'The Dementia Darnings', Jenni Dutton has taken best-loved photographs from the family collection and reproduced them as large scale, densely woven depictions in wool and thread.
These photographs each present Jenni’s mother at various points in her life. They are well known, to-the-point-of-archetypal, to the artist and her family members. In the making of these portraits, she has necessarily encountered and explored new perspectives on her mother’s dementia and the erosive, as well as the transformative, effects of this illness on the self and the mother-daughter relationship.
In the developing of each of these images, she has come into direct contact with those ideas associated with the threads that bind, together with the threads that fray, the threads that unravel and the threads that are cut loose. This coming together of method and material with content and context aligns the act of stitching and weaving with the fibres of memory and the process of remembering and not remembering. As well, each thread sewn brings the body, particularly the feminine body, in relation to the threads that tie generations of women together and makes tangible, the emotional, as well as biological ties between mother and daughter.
In the recreating and re-presenting of these old family photographs, Jenni invites us to be witness to a life lived. A life emblematised, in this context, by images of grace and composure. Their iconic quality and arresting scale sets up a reverential relationship between subject and viewer and, together with the outward gaze of the subject, their poignancy is unavoidable.
During the making of this collection, Jenni’s mother has been intimately connected to the development of each piece, acting herself, as witness, advisor and co-creator:

‘My mum has been involved in the whole of this series of work. When I bring the canvases to her house she is excited. She asks questions, she runs her hands over the surface and compares the emerging piece to the original photograph. And, what is really is magnificent she frequently remembers the pieces and our working together on them. She has even been known to relate the experience to others the next day! She watches me work upon the canvas, which is propped up on an easel in her sitting room. Seemingly fascinated, she follows the slow progress of the developing image and lights up as her own likeness is gradually revealed…This work has given me extraordinary and precious experiences with my mum, whose company and opinion I value. And, she is the one who tells me if an eye, for example, is not quite looking correct and usually she is right. This work is about love,’

Much is woven into this collection. Understanding a little of the process amplifies the aesthetic and emotional potency of each image. Metaphor is implicit, enmeshed within each and every stitch. As time passes and life moves on, their meaning and value will continue to unfold.

Briony Goffin

COMMENTS

An amazing, emotional, moving exhibition. I was really moved in a positive way having just lost my Mum to dementia.

I am a little lost for words as it is years since I have seen such quality (including emotional quality) of work. Beautiful, moving and please find them a space where more people can see the beauty you have created.

My mother passed away last December after having suffered terribly from Lewy Body dementia for 3 years. It was a dreadful time and I learned a lot about the nature of the illness. Your portraits were incredible, not only in the making of them, but the expressions too…they could have been my Mum’s expressions..I recognise her in them. It was very very emotional and very very moving for me. Thank you so much.

Although I don’t have much personal experience of dementia I found this exhibition very moving.. truely beautiful and I can imagine how nurturing this exhibition could be to people dealing with this experience within their own families.

It just bowls me over! The portraits are so alive! Just some pieces of thread and simple net, an idea and a bit of stitching and suddenly something most amazing comes to life. I love the continuity too, of feminine pursuits to a feminist exhibition. Thank you.

Dementia Darnings

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Dresses In The Wood

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