Artist information
Born in 1950, Caroline graduated from the Leicester School of Art in 1969 and the Central School of Art and Design, London in 1972. Although Caroline trained as a jeweller she soon diversified into textiles and sculptural installations incorporating clothing as pieces of art which are not intended to be worn. Caroline uses garments to explore ideas about personal identity and the portrayal of hidden feelings and emotions. Her recent work concentrates not only on clothing and textiles but on the space around garments on the body and shadows.
She has been exhibited widely throughout the world. Caroline was the winner of the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts: Textiles in 1997.
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'Dress with Holes' is part of a body of work I (Caroline) made using shadows as an integral part.
Previous work had used the dress as a metaphor for a person, but with these works, I was using the play between object and image to refer to substantial and insubstantial elements.
Shadows of people are both part of them and separate, perhaps the outermost visual boundary of someone, giving a likeness but more usually a distortion. There are many stories, like Peter Schlemihl or Peter Pan, about people trading their shadows with the devil or otherwise becoming separated and the subsequent struggle to reunite with it.
My intention was to give the shadow equal attention to the dress. The silk of the dress was dyed a mid grey and was a lightweight, transparent fabric. Because the silk was so fine the shadow carried the details of overlaps, seams, creases. In the shadow, I painted the inside spaces of the dress on the wall behind, like the neck, cuffs and the hem, so it looks like there might be a lining to the shadow, give a sense of three-dimensions.
I was also interested in the process of completing a work in the space it would be exhibited. These pieces depend on the theatrical nature of traditional art galleries - smooth white walls, controlled lighting. I always started with the light source and worked by placing the dress to get the right shadow.
The work comprises of two tulle dresses and shadows drawn on the wall. Broadhead uses garments to express ideas about personal identity and to reveal the characteristic feelings or emotions that a person may seek to conceal. Purchased by the Art Fund with the assistance of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
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"Windows can be seen as the ‘eyes’ of a building, through which there is a view inside and out, letting light in or being screened to obstruct the light. I had worked with shadows for some time when I made this piece, ‘Still Light’, and it was a response to working in a sunny studio space in Vienna, where I would watch the patch of light moving across the floor every day. I wanted to arrest this moment, to stop time passing, and to divide the light from the shade. I thought of the walls of the building being like a dress, or the skin of a body. The boundary of the building has been penetrated, the outside come in." -- Caroline Broadhead
COMMENT--I could only find the two images and unfortunately, can't manage to paste either in this post. What I find intriguing about her work is the combination of jewelry technique, fiber work, and very conceptual presentation. I'll try to find more examples of her work and bring them to class so you guys can see her stuff.
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