La Couturière
(French, "The Seamstress")
performed installation

Materials include: rocking chair; sewing basket; over 1,000 unbound pages from antique books, with Contè crayon sketches of women at work, inspired by Masters' drawings; over 100 pre-stitched clothing pattern "bodies"; one bare lightbulb, twine, needle & thread.

Over the course of several hours, performer unfurled and flattened the crumbled sepia tissue paper surrounding her to reveal dozens of rustling, diaphanous figures. Meticulously, she stitched these together, creating a line-up of forms and sizes, ages and styles. She hung the bodies to cocoon herself into her self-made room. Viewers were allowed access to all parts of the installation for the duration of the piece.

Presented at The Performance Art Festival
Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio
April, 1999