Exquisite Corpses is a collaborative project with Dr Ingrid Mida, former Curator and Collection-Co- ordinator of the Fashion Research Collection at Ryerson University, Toronto.


Questions the project asks are:

What can drawing do as how can drawing make visible aspects of the clothing that is otherwise unseen?

How can drawing share and communicate collection artefacts that are too vulnerable to go on public display?

How can drawing raise awareness of the value of textile artefacts and the challenges facing curators and conservators?

How might a space be created to share and value textile artefacts owned by the public that are laden with personal memory and significance but are not materially significant enough to accessioned by a museum ?

The project grows out of shared investment in drawing as a significant method in the research of textile and garments. The seemingly macabre title refers to the drawing game game played by the surrealists where an image is completed by multiple players, each adding a section without seeing what the previous drawer has drawn. Like the game, we pass ideas and images back and forth across the Atlantic in the development of work about garments which are invisible. These items of clothing are might themselves be considered 'exquisite corpses': beautiful and fascinating material traces of people long dead.