The Dress (2024) is a dress that has been stained with red and pink stains, which are a resemblance to violence, blood and vulnerability. The dress is made of white cotton which perfectly allows for these stains to be imprinted onto it and show the scene as it is. The stains are made from acrylic, pomegranate, and beetroot ground the work in a more organic state. This can be compared to the organicity of the human body. Along with these materials being organic- they much more resemble blood than acrylic.
From a closer inspection of the work, the viewer should notice a poem on the dress. However, from the publication, it is too small to see that red and pink replications of blood have enveloped the poem. The poem would, if you were to be near the artwork, invite the viewer to get closer to the work to inspect it much more closely. The poem seems to explore the metamorphosis and transformation of the body in which, in this artwork, the body seems to have transformed through brutality and violence.
Despite the work being more aesthetically quieter within its presentation, it is still carrying the same message that Ana Mendieta’s Rape Scene (1973) presented while being confrontational to the viewer. The drips, blotches and blood stains across the dress result from trauma and violation. This, therefore, expresses the vulnerability, yet the dress also is resilient in that it showcases resistance- as the poems on the dress challenge the viewer to consider our understandings of gendered violence, societal expectations and personal autonomy.
What were you Wearing (2024) is a stained white shirt and jersey trousers covered by red and black handprints challenges the viewer to engage with the work’s title that is referencing to the victim-blaming rhetoric of patriarchal society. The white cotton- which the colour white could be a symbol of purity has become defiled by the acrylic and pomegranate stains. This blankness of the shirt and jersey trousers which are now in a current state of defilement showcases the societal stripping of dignity in the face of sexual violence.
Thus, the two items of clothing are now evidence of these despicable acts of patriarchal society. Moving towards the influences of the work, Marcus Harvey’s heavily controversial work Myra used handprints of children to recreate the face of serial killer Myra Hindley. This influence (shown through the handprints in this work) gives the work a provocative commentary on culpability, innocence and the ways that we imprint and are imprinted upon by the societies we inhabit.
Hence, the work is a question and a condemnation in which it references the patriarchal practice of shifting blame for sexual sexual onto the victims. By pushing the question into the work with this context – it shows how it is absurd and cruel, thus exposing the ways that patriarchal societies prioritise external appearance over addressing systemic sexual abuse and violence.
Together, The Dress (2024) and What Were You Wearing? (2024) reclaim everyday garments- which are used to cover and protect, turning them into evidence of sexual abuse, violence and discrimination. While The Dress explores transformation through poetry and resistance, What Were You Wearing? challenges the viewer with the weight of victim-blaming culture, which has been created through the oppressive patriarchal society. Both works share the red staining from the pomegranate, beetroot and acrylic, which showcase the vulnerability and trauma in the aftermath of violence.