The Red Dress (Up Close and In Person)
Nothing prepared me for the thrill of meeting the Red Dress in person, along with its creator, Kirstie Macleod. I previewed this exhibition in May on Artful. If you have not seen it, here is my review, published last week in The Arts Fuse, an online arts magazine in Boston.
As seen on The Arts Fuse:*
The Red Dress has arrived for its its debut appearance in the United States at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, VT, through September 24. Made of yards of silk dupioni, the color red was, according to its creator Kirstie Macleod, an inevitable choice — a metaphor for power, significance, and women’s blood.
Macleod, a conceptual and textile artist, spent fourteen years on the project, originally constructing the dress and then wearing it herself as a one-woman exhibition in which she enclosed herself in a glass box and quietly embroidered on the fabric. At some point she decided to de-center herself and reach out to women around the world to embroider panels on the dress. Many of these artists were refugees or other marginalized women; they were invited to tell their stories through embroidery. The completed work eventually called on the efforts of 375 contributors in 51 countries. Panels were sent out, embroidered, and returned over various time frames. One patch took seven years to complete. Over the decades the dress was deconstructed and rebuilt numerous times.
The Red Dress is an impressive artifact that embroidery artists and the casual observer will want to eye closely, examining the various motifs that bump up against each other, as if in conversation. Few square inches of silk remain unadorned. The garment is beautiful to behold, but also powerful in a number of other ways. It challenges traditional notions of art as the product of a single artist and suggests the strength — politically and aesthetically — of communal creation.
An accompanying video provides helpful context. Camera crews accompanied Macleod as she traveled with the completed dress back to some of the individual artists so that they could see how their panel had become part of the whole. Contributing artists — and they alone — have been permitted to wear the dress. Numerous outsiders have asked for the privilege, but requests have been denied.
The Red Dress will also travel to The Frick Pittsburgh and Fuller Craft Museum.
— Susan B. Apel
*with minor edits by the author
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.