“We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavor to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavor, we will perish. However immoral or subversive this may sound to some, it is the writer who must always remember that mortality, if it is to remain or become morality, must be perpetually examined, cracked, changed, made new. He must remember, however powerful the many who would rather forget, that life is the only touchstone and that life is dangerous, and that without the joyful acceptance of this danger, there can never be any safety for anyone, ever, anywhere….Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
My project was made in relation to the last section of the Baldwin quote, which is italicized here. My dress was inspired by the idea that identity is explosive and expressive; I modeled this by making a white dress explode with acrylic paint and tulle. To me, identity is a notion that grows slowly and should not be directly faced. It just happens– you are who you are, and day by day you live your identity.
The silhouette of the dress originally started as a simple base layer A-line dress, but I kept adding layers of fabric and paint to make the piece more expressive. In this sense, my dress went through a shift as it changed through the building process. Some of the pictures in the attached gallery are from prior to the dress’ finish, so this shift can be seen there as well.
Multiple perspectives are addressed in this dress through the use of the paints on the skirt. The messy paint symbolizes the way outside influences clash with our internal identities. Slashes of yellow, red, and blue paint make a mess on the top of layer of the dress, yet it does not reach below. The influences of others may make dents in our personality, yet they will not change our core identity.
