The Cache Dressmaker.

INSTALLATION AND EXHIBITION.

No. 34, IDEAS TEST, Sittingbourne, Kent.

A cache of 504 ‘deliberately concealed garments and objects’ was found in a Sittingbourne building a few doors down from No. 34. The textiles and objects were revealed in the floorboards, chimneys, bedroom walls and door frames as the building was demolished.

Caches in buildings were very common, when the life of a garment came to an end it would take on a protective and magical property, the more personal the object the more potential it had. The concealment of objects still goes on today but people are reluctant to talk about it.

As the Cache Dressmaker I exhibited six hundred, hand made, miniature garments and objects showing their relationship to buildings and rooms. The Dressmakers work explored domestic spaces, the traces of garments silently witnessing the passage of time and previous lives. Through her work the Cache Dressmaker had a deeper understanding of her surroundings, her handicraft was a symbolic act, demanding patience and precision, translating ideas into embroidery.

During the exhibition the Cache Dressmaker was resident on the stairwell of No. 34, making tiny garments to conceal for good fortune in the fabric of the building. See Cache Dressmaker at No.34.

Accompanying publication ‘The Stairwell Gallery’.

All photographs by Artist, Rebecca Caudell and IDEAS TEST.