Tree plans

Working on a poem for Forest Poets at The Vestry House for E17 2014 Arts trail

Wedding dress of satin crepe embroidered with glass beads, 1942

Lillian Sims wore this dress at her wedding to Dick Sims on the 3rd January 1942. They were engaged for a year when, during Christmas 1941, they made a snap decision to marry. Sargent Sims was on embarkation leave at the time and they only had three weeks to make The wedding preparations, before he had to return to the Royal Artillery Mrs Sims, with the help of a friend, designed the dress and they spent long hours sewing it in the blackout.

 They bought the material form Romford Market. Mrs Sims used her book of clothing coupons plus extra ones from a relative. The dress was borrowed by at least three other brides for Their wedding’s. Later Mrs Sims daughter used it for dressing up. She called It her ‘princess dress’.

Due to war time restrictions on the use of sugar. Wedding cakes were not allowed to be iced. It was not unusual to have a dummy wedding cake, made of cardboard, concealing a small sponge cake.



 

Phydilla Barlow and Ruins Lust at The Tate Britain

Work in progress: this years E17 Arts Trail entry

The tree in the window We used a trunk, branches, and sticks to recreate a tree for exhibition purposes. The tree is no longer a living thing, it is an inanimate object. By sculpting other bits of wood onto the trunk we are remaking a version of a tree that does not exist in nature, it is a man- made object, the hand is in the work. The sculpture is made in the way Frankenstein’s monster was made, by cannibalising bits of other dead wood and putting them together to create the likeness of a tree. Unfortunately we were unable to source bits of bodies to make a human and display in the front window, we are hoping to do this for next year’s E17 Arts Trail. (Frankenstein’s monster is the best example of by inadvertently trying to make something of beauty, making something which is ugly and how objective this is. Frankenstein’s monster has become a bench mark of ugliness. Frankenstein’s monster is also the plastic surgery extreme, perceived greatness/perfection in certain aspects and how the sum of parts does not necessarily add up to the greatest of all.)