For King and Country
The First World War produced many young heroes, also many young women destined to be spinsters; women who had given their hearts to men who believed the war would be short, a great adventure and that they would be back to their normal lives in a matter of months.
We commemorate the fallen every year, and I have produced this body of work to remember the many young women who grew older with the memories of what might have been if their lives had followed the course of their expectations. Many families have the spinster aunt who looked after aged relations, who perhaps visited for Christmas or Easter, and like me it might have been many years later that you discovered the real story of the aunt who faded into the background.
I have produced the wedding outfit that the aunt as a young woman might have been preparing for her fiancés return and imminent marriage. The dress, veil and flowers become discoloured with age and gradually blended into the background just as did the aunt.
This dress is embroidered with lilies and crucifixes. Around the neckline edge of the dress there is embroidery in the style of old samplers spelling out part of “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” This was their hope after the war. Inside the scallops of the lower edge of the bodice are written parts of the baptism service of the time representing the children she would never bare. Around the hem of the dress are more lilies in alternate scallops with parts of the marriage service underneath and in the other spaces are crucifixes with words from telegrams sent home telling of the mens’ death or loss in combat. The headdress for the veil is a circle of lilies, we have lilies both for weddings and funerals, a wreath of flowers on a brides head like the gold band on her finger symbolizes eternal love. The ivy on the wedding veil and the bouquet are there to show how ivy covers over bleak areas and makes them fresh and green if left to itself it covers over graveyards and old buildings, you cannot be sure if the ground underneath is good and fertile or mainly rock. The rust represents the iron staining from the blood shed on both sides of war, the rusted metal of the battlefield and the heavy metal armaments they would have carried for miles; also the effect the war had on even those who were lucky enough to return.
The text inside the shoes is To love and to cherish. Till death us do part. And on the foot stool Blessed are the Peacemakers.
The dress and veil are hanging on the back of the door in readiness for the fiancées return home. They age and gradually blend into the background and become part of the womans’ history we have quietly forgotten.
I have produced this work to try to readdress my rather unkind memories of the spinster great aunts in my family that I remember as a young child. Now I know more about their lives as young women and the work they did through their working lives and retirements I have great respect for them and I also understand the respect my parents generation had for them.
We commemorate the fallen every year, and I have produced this body of work to remember the many young women who grew older with the memories of what might have been if their lives had followed the course of their expectations. Many families have the spinster aunt who looked after aged relations, who perhaps visited for Christmas or Easter, and like me it might have been many years later that you discovered the real story of the aunt who faded into the background.
I have produced the wedding outfit that the aunt as a young woman might have been preparing for her fiancés return and imminent marriage. The dress, veil and flowers become discoloured with age and gradually blended into the background just as did the aunt.
This dress is embroidered with lilies and crucifixes. Around the neckline edge of the dress there is embroidery in the style of old samplers spelling out part of “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” This was their hope after the war. Inside the scallops of the lower edge of the bodice are written parts of the baptism service of the time representing the children she would never bare. Around the hem of the dress are more lilies in alternate scallops with parts of the marriage service underneath and in the other spaces are crucifixes with words from telegrams sent home telling of the mens’ death or loss in combat. The headdress for the veil is a circle of lilies, we have lilies both for weddings and funerals, a wreath of flowers on a brides head like the gold band on her finger symbolizes eternal love. The ivy on the wedding veil and the bouquet are there to show how ivy covers over bleak areas and makes them fresh and green if left to itself it covers over graveyards and old buildings, you cannot be sure if the ground underneath is good and fertile or mainly rock. The rust represents the iron staining from the blood shed on both sides of war, the rusted metal of the battlefield and the heavy metal armaments they would have carried for miles; also the effect the war had on even those who were lucky enough to return.
The text inside the shoes is To love and to cherish. Till death us do part. And on the foot stool Blessed are the Peacemakers.
The dress and veil are hanging on the back of the door in readiness for the fiancées return home. They age and gradually blend into the background and become part of the womans’ history we have quietly forgotten.
I have produced this work to try to readdress my rather unkind memories of the spinster great aunts in my family that I remember as a young child. Now I know more about their lives as young women and the work they did through their working lives and retirements I have great respect for them and I also understand the respect my parents generation had for them.
