Unravelling
Concept
"“Unravelling” is conceived from three sources of inspiration: George Buchner’s Woyzeck; mental illness as a feminized and romanticized stigma as represented in early Hollywood films; and the relationship of anxiety with physical sensations in the body.
Through my work I begin a dialogue between art, craft and mental health, where I explore the intimate relationship between design and the body. Sometimes, when creating fabric art in an anxious state, the anxiety and tension can be seen in the stitches, and dissatisfaction will result in unpicking and unravelling the work. The kinetic energy of anxiety can be equated to badly winding a bobbin, the machine spins the bobbin at an extreme pace, while the thread struggles to find the right placement, and instead tangles itself uncontrollably. One can sometimes feel themselves to be this tangled thread, which artistic creation and self care, gently untangle.
The primary texture of these dresses is inspired by imprints on the skin caused by night sweats and damp sheets on the body while sleeping. Silver 1930s gowns represent romanticized melancholy, while a white sculptural coat depicts a bedsheet, a fragile protective layer between oneself and the outside world. The title dress for the exhibit focuses on representing flesh, sweat and tears while also depicting neurons in brain tissue, referencing the frontal lobe of the brain which controls mood. Another dress represents the fire of anxiety burning within, while the final dress depicts emerging from a golden cocoon, honouring the process of rehabilitation; acknowledgement of one’s pain and building back up the Self from within."
Danielle is a recipient of the Laureate of the Mecnes investis pour les arts grant, a program from the Brigade Art-Affaires de Montreal"
Credits:
Costume designer, Project Creator and Seamstress : Danielle Fagen
Photographer: Damian Siqueiros
Assistant Photographer: Helena Valles
Set Designer and Exhibition Curator: Bruno Pierre Houle
Hair and Makeup Artist : Jess Cohen
Poetry: Madelaine Caritas Longman
Exhibition held at Center Never Apart, Montreal for virtual tour please visit : https://www.neverapart.com/exhibitions/unravelling/
Through my work I begin a dialogue between art, craft and mental health, where I explore the intimate relationship between design and the body. Sometimes, when creating fabric art in an anxious state, the anxiety and tension can be seen in the stitches, and dissatisfaction will result in unpicking and unravelling the work. The kinetic energy of anxiety can be equated to badly winding a bobbin, the machine spins the bobbin at an extreme pace, while the thread struggles to find the right placement, and instead tangles itself uncontrollably. One can sometimes feel themselves to be this tangled thread, which artistic creation and self care, gently untangle.
The primary texture of these dresses is inspired by imprints on the skin caused by night sweats and damp sheets on the body while sleeping. Silver 1930s gowns represent romanticized melancholy, while a white sculptural coat depicts a bedsheet, a fragile protective layer between oneself and the outside world. The title dress for the exhibit focuses on representing flesh, sweat and tears while also depicting neurons in brain tissue, referencing the frontal lobe of the brain which controls mood. Another dress represents the fire of anxiety burning within, while the final dress depicts emerging from a golden cocoon, honouring the process of rehabilitation; acknowledgement of one’s pain and building back up the Self from within."
Danielle is a recipient of the Laureate of the Mecnes investis pour les arts grant, a program from the Brigade Art-Affaires de Montreal"
Credits:
Costume designer, Project Creator and Seamstress : Danielle Fagen
Photographer: Damian Siqueiros
Assistant Photographer: Helena Valles
Set Designer and Exhibition Curator: Bruno Pierre Houle
Hair and Makeup Artist : Jess Cohen
Poetry: Madelaine Caritas Longman
Exhibition held at Center Never Apart, Montreal for virtual tour please visit : https://www.neverapart.com/exhibitions/unravelling/
Exhibition Photographs by Edwin Isford
Notes on unravelling by Madelaine Caritas Longman
i.
between days
the saltgrain stars
condense
the light in your eyelids
all you can see
and far away as sleep
ii.
armoured in gossamer
camera-flash glint
coiled under your skin
silver screen. black river.
every surface a mirror
effaced by light
when you look at the light
you want what it hides
when you look into nothing
you want what it hides
the quiet of your body
rushes in your ears
iii.
each star
a white stone
lifted
and dropped
into black waves
still falling
until the fear
is not the end of thought
but its persistence
iv.
then day. then day.
you would peel yourself from this
string of sweat and tears and thoughts
the body burning tangled
in its own possibilities
you pull at loose threads
then you pull at the holes
you pull
v.
imprints of sheets
pin you into your skin
deep as lifelines
they fade
heart racing
In a room
where nothing
moves
vi.
you touch the light
that touches your skin
and falls like a thought
into dark, into breath.
a thin gold fracture
cold as dawn
and radiant
a cloud on the waves
the colour of waves
a space for the light
that makes the light
i.
between days
the saltgrain stars
condense
the light in your eyelids
all you can see
and far away as sleep
ii.
armoured in gossamer
camera-flash glint
coiled under your skin
silver screen. black river.
every surface a mirror
effaced by light
when you look at the light
you want what it hides
when you look into nothing
you want what it hides
the quiet of your body
rushes in your ears
iii.
each star
a white stone
lifted
and dropped
into black waves
still falling
until the fear
is not the end of thought
but its persistence
iv.
then day. then day.
you would peel yourself from this
string of sweat and tears and thoughts
the body burning tangled
in its own possibilities
you pull at loose threads
then you pull at the holes
you pull
v.
imprints of sheets
pin you into your skin
deep as lifelines
they fade
heart racing
In a room
where nothing
moves
vi.
you touch the light
that touches your skin
and falls like a thought
into dark, into breath.
a thin gold fracture
cold as dawn
and radiant
a cloud on the waves
the colour of waves
a space for the light
that makes the light