Work statement: "Dressed like the sky" is a phrase in the folk song Pretty and High by The Roches. The visual of a sky dress lead to sketches, illustrations and paintings using a dress as a canvas.
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, is a children's book about a poor Polish-American girl named Wanda. Classmates teased Wanda for claiming she had 100 dresses in her closet "all lined up in a row." Later, at a classroom art show they discovered Wanda did have 100 dresses. They were beautiful drawings of dresses she had kept in her closet. I was struck by the moral and ethical questions this short story posed and how innocent, naive, cruel yet hopeful children can be.
This story along with the folk song is the inspiration for Dresses Like the Sky. I use the dress to represent the essence of girlhood as both a constraint and as an expression. The photo diary of each dress completes the story of youth and self-expression, yet it brings to surface the fears and moral dilemmas girls may face. |