Rachel Ormshaw
My thesis body of work explores the metaphysical and paranormal qualities of antique textiles, investigating the history inherent in all cloth I link the experiences of garments themselves to those who lived within and around them. Shifting awareness of garment towards the narrative and archival I render textile as ghost, a remnant of the past that carries affective power. Using antique garments from the period between 1890-1920 as reference, I crafted garments through processes of felting, hand knitting and direct patterning.
I composed these pieces together with found furniture from the same time period, arranging the visual, the textural, and the historical in an artificial domestic space inspired by historical heritage sites and museum stagings.These spaces are uncanny in their forged reality but give the viewer a sense of the people who would have occupied them and the ghosts that might still linger.
