Unravelling
Unravelling is a personal exploration of anxiety and depression through costume, dance, photography and poetry. Inspired by the play Woyzeck by Georg Bushner, as well as sensations one can experience through nightmares and night sweats, Danielle explores mental health struggles by creating costumes which embody varied feelings and states of mind.
Virtual opening Thursday April 22nd at 6pm EST on Never Apart’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
Enter the virtual viewing room:
“Through my work I begin a dialogue between art, craft and mental health, where I explore the intimate relationship between design and the body. Sometimes, when creating fabric art in an anxious state, the anxiety and tension can be seen in the stitches, and dissatisfaction will result in unpicking and unravelling the work. The kinetic energy of anxiety can be equated to badly winding a bobbin, the machine spins the bobbin at an extreme pace, while the thread struggles to find the right placement, and instead tangles itself uncontrollably. One can sometimes feel themselves to be this tangled thread, which artistic creation and self care, gently untangle.”
“The primary texture of these dresses is inspired by imprints on the skin caused by night sweats and damp sheets on the body while sleeping. Silver 1930s gowns represent romanticized melancholy, while a white sculptural coat depicts a bedsheet, a fragile protective layer between oneself and the outside world. The title dress for the exhibit focuses on representing flesh, sweat and tears while also depicting neurons in brain tissue, referencing the frontal lobe of the brain which controls mood. Another dress represents the fire of anxiety burning within, while the final dress depicts emerging from a golden cocoon, honouring the process of rehabilitation; acknowledgement of one’s pain and building back up the Self from within.”
“Thank you to my supportive family and friends throughout the darker times and the creation of this project and my artistic mentor John Colm Leberg.”
Danielle Fagen is a recipient of the Laureate of the Mécènes investis pour les arts grant, a program from the Brigade Art-Affaires de Montréal
Project Creator, Designer and Seamstress: Danielle Fagen
Photographer: Damian Siqueiros
Dancer: Alisia Pobega
Set Designer and Curation Design: Bruno Pierre Houle
Poet: Madelaine Caritas Longman
Hair and Makeup Artist: Jess Cohen
Photography assistant: Helena Valles
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