TRANSFORMATION THROUGH FIRE - work in progress - CHARLIE PI
‘The Burning’
Current work for possible exhibition in 2014
The title of this body of work is as much to do with process as with the content.
Better to Marry than to Burn:
‘Miss Havisham’ from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and ‘The first Mrs Rochester’ from Jane Eyre. Both women burned to death, Miss Havisham in the wedding dress she had worn since being jilted at the altar.
Mixed-media works on plywood with applied and burnt wedding dresses.
Remains of Myth:
Sticking wedding dresses to plywood and then setting fire to them led me to using other antique dresses, shirts, aprons and children’s costumes of fairies and angels which are treated in a more analytical way much as anatomical specimens. They also tap into Jungian Archetypes around sex and gender.
Mixed-media works on plywood with applied and burnt costumes.
Puppy Dog Tales:
Following on from the Remains of Myth I am looking at creating 3 dimensional constructs around children’s fancy dress costumes examining how the way we chose to dress our children reinforces sexual and gender stereotyping. Princesses and Snow White for girls and Devils and Pirates for boys.
Free standing and hanging constructs made from children’s costumes and accessories, burnt of course.
Lizzie Borden's Dirty Laundry:
Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done she gave her father 41 but in between she did the ironing and burnt her blood-stained dress.
Mixed-media works on embroidered linen tablecloths, serviettes and kerchiefs.
Current work for possible exhibition in 2014
The title of this body of work is as much to do with process as with the content.
Better to Marry than to Burn:
‘Miss Havisham’ from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and ‘The first Mrs Rochester’ from Jane Eyre. Both women burned to death, Miss Havisham in the wedding dress she had worn since being jilted at the altar.
Mixed-media works on plywood with applied and burnt wedding dresses.
Remains of Myth:
Sticking wedding dresses to plywood and then setting fire to them led me to using other antique dresses, shirts, aprons and children’s costumes of fairies and angels which are treated in a more analytical way much as anatomical specimens. They also tap into Jungian Archetypes around sex and gender.
Mixed-media works on plywood with applied and burnt costumes.
Puppy Dog Tales:
Following on from the Remains of Myth I am looking at creating 3 dimensional constructs around children’s fancy dress costumes examining how the way we chose to dress our children reinforces sexual and gender stereotyping. Princesses and Snow White for girls and Devils and Pirates for boys.
Free standing and hanging constructs made from children’s costumes and accessories, burnt of course.
Lizzie Borden's Dirty Laundry:
Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done she gave her father 41 but in between she did the ironing and burnt her blood-stained dress.
Mixed-media works on embroidered linen tablecloths, serviettes and kerchiefs.