Fragment of a Dress performance

About

Originally commissioned in 2022 as part of a year-long celebration of costume and textiles at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Hannah Lamb created Fragment of a Dress as a modern-day reflection on the special place that clothes have in our lives. She invited museum visitors to write a short piece about an item of clothing that held significance for them. The resulting handwritten passages were then carefully hand embroidered onto silk organza by a team of volunteers, which was then transformed into a voluminous skirt or dress. The work was presented with a nod to the 19th century dresses worn by Charlotte Brontë and her sisters. Read more about the work here.

Speaking about her original vision for the project, Hannah says:

“The museum collection contains some beautiful period dresses and accessories but what particularly caught my attention were the small scraps of cloth that had been treasured as souvenirs by friends and fans of the Brontë sisters.”

In the latest iteration of Fragment of a Dress, Hannah will be collaborating with performance artist Jenny Sais Pas, to bring the artwork to life. Dressed in the embroidered skirt, crinoline, corset and various layers of underpinnings, Jenny will invite audience members to snip a piece from the work, the skirt becoming ever more fragmented as the day progresses. Hannah cites Yoko Ono’s powerful ‘Cut Piece’ performance artwork as an influence, although she intends her own performance to have a gentler feel. She said:

“…In making Fragment of a Dress it was always my intention to deconstruct the piece, returning it to a series of fragments. Although this could be seen as a destructive act, for me it is part of the life of the work. I wanted this piece to have another life beyond the museum exhibition and to be part of a collaborative process.”

Collaboration has been at the core of the project from the outset, from the parsonage museum staff and visitors, to Hannah’s students who volunteered their time to embroider the text on the dress. It therefore seems appropriate to collaborate with someone from a different artistic discipline, in this performance piece. It is also perhaps fitting that the performance will take place at Sunny Bank Mill, formerly a weaving mill producing cloth for the tailoring industries. Tucked away at the very top of the Spinning Mill building, the attic is an untouched part of the historic mill buildings, which is not usually open to the public.

Tickets and access info. available online.