New in the Windows: Nadine Mercil

This is a show that sits smally, quietly in the windows, but on closer examination, packs a punch.  It is worth spending some time with.

Nadine Mercil

My artwork is many things; fragile, elusive, revolting, dramatic, an authentic and visual representation of my inner emotions as I see or define them.  My art, at times, may be provocative, but provocation is not my primary goal.   My primary goal is to develop or create a visual diary of my life, souvenirs of my time here on earth.

My pendants are mementos of my relationship with an abusive man.  They are not meant to be worn – at least not by me – but there is the possibility that at some point they may hang around someone’s neck.  I started out using photographs from family albums, but after going through this supply, have turned to other families photos (bought and sold on EBAY) and since one in three women are abused, I believe there is  a strong possibility that some of the women in the photo’s I have purchased have also been abused.

I think it is important to make this work, because there is often a shroud of secrecy around domestic abuse and I want to remove the shroud and tell the truth, or my truth, about what takes place or what has happened to a woman who has suffered domestic abuse/ violence.   

My work is continually evolving. Depending on what is going on in my life my art can be light and airy – relatively so – or dark and disturbing. 

I have a very strong desire to be seen.  Domestic abuse often makes me feel invisible, that I don’t count, that what I think and feel does not matter – my art challenges that assumption – my art doesn’t have to be pretty – it doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be dark and disturbing, it can be whatever I want it to be, I am free to express myself however I wish – because I rarely show my work, I do not give a great deal of thought to how an audience might react – because the audience is usually just me. 

Further embroidery lessons

I love lace.  I collect old crocheted lace, most of it stained and damaged from love...the way I like it best...holding close the stories of their making and their use.  the hands of many people handled the delicate fabric.

No way as moving as old lace, it still intrigues me that the embroidery machine can stich lace patterns...some of which can stand alone.  Way too cool.

Embroidery lessons

Machine embroidery is pretty slick.  The machine I purchased, and am paying for over 48 months, is a Baby Lock Elegante 2.  It has many built in stitched, designs and mild editing capability, which I am learning to use.  This flower was lesson #1 using the embroidery unit after several weeks of learning the capabilities of the machine without the embroidery attachment.  Pretty durn cool.

I came home from my lesson and began to experiment, using all kinda of thread, combining built in patterns.  I made this giant, narcissistic "S".  Really, too cool.  I learned multiple lessons about using the machine.

A new quest has begun...

 
The studio is as chaotic as it usually is these days.  I am framing, wrapping, storing, moving among contractors as the re-modeling comes near to a close. Transition is still the the word of the day.

Amid it all, I applied for a grant, but did not win it.  So be it.  I carry on.  My goal remains.  It is to make another oversized dress (ultimately more than one) from unbleached muslin, with a small bodice, overly long noodle-sleeves.  The bodice and sleeves will be heavily embroidered with lace images. The skirt(s) of the dress(es) will tell the story.

Fashioning narrative: engendered stories

It all began with old, worn white dresses.

The dresses hover like ghosts, ethereal, whispering in the registers just beyond hearing; flitting about in that peripheral place just beyond the corner of your eye.

I am interested in the narratives revealed by clothing: the power of clothing to tell a story, to support a myth or to define a role. My goal is to tell new stories making manifest internalized meanings implicit in fashion and to reassess traditional understandings of gender roles.

I have collected nightgowns, baptismal dresses, children’s clothing from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and I have sewn giant muslin dresses. They function as carriers of stories, individually and in groups. They are stiffened, suspended and animated to music, glued, painted and pinned onto canvas, and some are filled with light and sound They seem naïve, misguided, innocent, nostalgic, tragic, living in a dream world.

Each represents a costume donned by an individual enmeshed in a culture that attempted to define them or confine them to stable definitions of gender and class. Women’s history is tied up with fashion, their stories often hidden. Here, they are made visible.

Sea Dress/ Anemones

The gallery is empty and the space is MINE. Well, it was always mine, but now it is studio space and I have begun to work again, even though Christmas is close upon us and I have a new rescue dog to claim my time! That is Gideon sneaking into the picture;-) It pleases me to see that the proportions of the crocheted bodice and the skirt are right, in this space.There is still much to do, many decisions to make. I had imagined the hem of the skirt rolling like waves breaking on the beach. To do that I will need to build a structure underneath or stack layers of gathered crinoline or, maybe I change things a bit and have the anemones bursting out from under the dress...today I will see what happens when I pin the HEAVY anemones UP. The dress armature is sturdy, but the fabric is thin muslin. WHat will it look like with the weight of the sea creatures dragging it down?

Much new work

I ordered the frame for this today..a black metal frame. The top arm extends beyond the frame on foamcore. Dresses are still an obsession for me. I have been dyeing cloth lately that was part of the Kristalnacht installation ( go to susanhenseldesign.com and click the link for installations.) It is indigo dyed, with ghostly images of the lists of concentration camps. I am wondering what would happen if I made dresses from this indigo dyed muslin in styles that might have been around during World War II. While I do not imagine them ON anyone, I suppose I could have a trangressive fashion show... Just thinking, you know? (Drawing on UV Utra paper with gesso and various colored pencils)