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CITY ART GALLERY & MUSEUM
- Work by Serena Partridge
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| Although her
works contain strong references to the past, Partridge is not concerned
with producing historically accurate replicas. In her work, scale
and proportion are distorted to create curios that send up the frivolity
and futility of life à la mode. French Coiffure with Parasol
features a towering hairpiece with a tiny sunshade lost and ineffectual
at the top. While Dinner Dress of Copper Silk
Taffeta has a normally proportioned head and waist, but ludicrously
long overskirt, a fashion statement that will literally trip the wearer
up. Despite the comical edge, there is a real sense of tease and titillation to the work. The Wedding and Evening Shoes have gradient-defying heels and Court Dress with Coiffure Extravaganza has a vast side-hooped skirt that hides the thighs and groin, but very much accentuates them. Arguably, the sexiest pieces are the boots - with all the hints of lacing, corsetry and manipulation of the body. Though the work involves endless hours of hand stitching, it isn't really embroidery. If anything, Partridge is more of a mixed-media artist who leans towards textiles. She mixes antique fabrics and trimmings with frankly any material that will achieve the desired effect. Thus, kid gloves are reincarnated into elongated boots and a fragmented wedding veil becomes the filling of a six-tier gateau; while heels are carved in wood, coiffures are fashioned from strands of fine silk and cases are carefully constructed in glass and edged with patinated copper. Partridge renders her follies more mysterious by presenting them as if they have become museum acquisitions, complete with fictional labels. Already appearing disembodied, the presentation heightens their anonymous qualities, as if to distance the viewer from the maker by suggesting that someone else has selected and displayed these pieces. The 'someone else' is Partridge in another guise, reflecting her experiences of working behind the scenes at Churchill House Museum, Hereford and at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. For her, the rather ordinary process of getting things out of storage was a constant joy. The cupboards, boxes, wrappings and especially the tissue paper, with its seductive rustle and texture, were all an inspiration. Partridge's work has many parallels with classic English storytelling - from Gulliver's Travels, a story of an imaginary voyage full of fantasy and invented histories; to Great Expectations, featuring Miss Havisham, the aging, jilted bride surrounded by the decaying vestiges of marriage. Children will recognise elements of the elves and the shoemaker - who else would have fashioned the exquisite blue tie shoes or silver-fringed mules? Partridge graduated with a First Class BA(Hons) Degree in Design Crafts, from Herefordshire College of Art and Design, in 1998. Usually based in Worcestershire, she is currently on a ten-month residency in North Ayrshire, working with staff and pupils from Irvine Royal Academy. |
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Work
by Serena Partridge
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White Kid Boots with Parisian Trimmings |
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Yellow Brocade Slippers |
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Dinner Dress of Copper Silk Taffeta |
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Red Gloves |
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English "Exhibition" Boot |
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Artist's Statement |