Community Dress Building – Deborah Thompson

Artwork by Deborah Thompson

This is a great opportunity for people to contribute to the building of a community dress. For the duration of the exhibit a dress station will be present, for people in the local community to stitch another piece onto a communal dress. Come to the artist talk and dress building workshop on Saturday March 6th and learn the intricate art of stitching hide like beeswax encased rice paper.

The creation of the community dress can be seen both as a healing ritual, and a meditation on embodiment. Reflecting on the project Coming Forth by Day as a recognition of the stages of transformation or change necessary for healing, the journey that is an integral part of growth for both the individual and community. The tactile aspect of the process, the holding of natural materials and the sewing of pieces together act as a binding and bridging metaphor for making what is separate whole. That this separateness is the root of the longing we all experience that moves us continually towards wholeness or union. And in acknowledging and working with this longing we can foster compassion for one another and ourselves. This process of physical remembering is an act of giving voice to the physical suffering of the Missing Women in Vancouver whose lives were taken. And to all women (and sentient beings) who are suffering and wish to move towards an integrated wholeness and healing. The image of the dress is a symbol of multiple meanings, that of the feminine with in all of us, that of the female body from which we were all born, that of our own bodies and that of the body of the earth in which we are interdependent of.

Do not miss this invitation to play a hand in creating this symbol of beauty, loss and renewal! The dress will be paraded in next year’s Women’s Memorial March on Feb 14th. This is also an event to celebrate International Women’s Day 2010 on March 8th.