Being not so much a symbol of purity, love and ‘happily ever after’, this particular wedding dress, AKA The Dress of Doom, represents not only two failed marriages but the uncertainty of life, the frailty and mythology of trusted institutions, the grief of disappointment and the nightmare of loneliness and despair in a parasitic relationship.
Not very cheerful, but all too often the end results of mismatched, mentally ill or dysfunctional couples. Seeking to portray the darker realities in my work, I have deliberately placed the D.O.D into scenes which juxtapose the delicacy and sweeter connotations of such an item. There is no hint of celebration or excitement, instead a quiet emptiness.
The sewn on fairy lights, originally a studio lighting experiment, pulse silently with their own set of connections. From one angle, they are tacky and unnecessary, from another angle, perhaps the bride has been bound up. Either way, in the pursuit of a disturbing or discombobulating viewpoint, the dress and its lights more often than not retain and exude their own intrinsic beauty.
This journey with the Garment of Grief is far from over. Its exorcising powers quietly dissolve old baggage and it becomes more and more a provocative photographic prop.
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To contact this artist please email: danielle.pearse@yahoo.com.au
