Description

The Wedding Dress / La robe de mariée is a sculpture in the shape of a dress hanging from a hangar. The bodice and back of the dress are made of white paper cast from the artist’s body. The front of the dress is adorned with four bas reliefs of bees in the paper, three miniature porcelain sculptures of bees and six industrial hexagonal pearl buttons. The hexagonal shapes are repeated in the waist with chicken-wire covered in white paper pulp. The skirt of the dress is made of cheese cloth.


Statement

The Wedding Dress / La robe de mariée was made as a result of a dream. In the dream, I discover my mother behind our family home. She was wearing her wedding dress and as I approached her, I saw that the front of her dress was covered with a mass of honeybees. This was the first direct connection I’d had with my mother since her sudden death when I was six. Perplexed by the dream, I did not know how to respond. Much later I dreamt again of her, but only of the dress and this time the dream showed me a way I could make the dress. This work is a result of the insistence of the dreams.

The presence of bees on the dress was very significant to me. Subsequent research into the matriarchal society of bees led me to further investigate women’s histories and mythologies.

Later, responding to a call for the exhibition, Filiations, at Powerhouse (now called La centrale) I remade the dress. A series of photographs were taken by Vivian Gottheim of me wearing the dress. One was selected for that exhibition in Montreal in 1985.

Karen Trask



Exhibition History

Filiations
group
November 23 – December 14, 1985
Galerie powerhouse, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other Artist(s)
Wilma Needham Weisa and Ula Pikula, Edith Et Zoe Rey Ola and Katinka Van Schoonhoven, Denise Morisset and Pascale Poulin, Freda Guttman and Rebecca Bain, Sheila and Gail Greenberg with Rosemary and Jesse Miller, Denise Dumas and Capucine Gaudry, Susanne and Paule De Lotbiniere-Harwood, Therese and Emilienne Chabot, Joyce and Jessica Blair, Ruth and Miriam Beer, Kay and Jessie Aubanel, Nell and Kay Tenhaaf, Dyana Werden, Arielle Asimakos
Tout l’art du monde ’85
group
1985
Ministère des Communautés culturelles et de l'Immigration, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Other Artist(s)
Aprahamian, Mirella; Armata, Ludmila; Ayotte, Patrick; Aziz, Sylvat; Bastien, Roland; Belcourt, Louise; Berezowsky, Liliana; Boissonnet, Philippe; Braitstein,Marcel; Caprani, Francis; Chatel, Frank; Chiba, Taiga; Chokri, Ahmed; Cozic, Yvon; Delavalle, Jean-Marie; De Melo, Tony; Di Leo, Giuseppe; Dishoyan, Alids; Doan De Champassak, Tiane; Dornan, Linda Rae; Firquet, Firmin; Fischer, Herve; Fodor, Daniel; Ghafouri, Mehdi; Goodman, Jeffrey; Grostern, Dorothy; Guttman-Bain, Freda; Habashi, Hani; Hillel, Edward; Houston, Kathleen; Jongue, Serge; Kokis, Sergio; Krausz, Peter; Laszlo-Lenard, Suzanne; Lemon, Jayne; Liberovskaya, Katherine; MAJOLA, AGNES (MBATHA); Mendolia, Antonino; Moreau, Jean-Pierre; Mujica, Magda; Mulvey, Frank; Negro, Jose; Rey, Edith; Rothon, Robert; Saharuni, Randy; Saint-Jean, Walker; Schlitter, Helga; Surprenant, Jacques H.; Symaniec-Survilla, Ivonka; Theze, Ariane; Thomas, J. Patrick; Velescou, Viorica; Velinger, George; Wainio, Carol; Widgery, Catherine

Publications

Filiations : l’art en équipes mère-fille
Marie Décary (1985). Le Devoir, samedi 14 décembre.