Jane Kidd – Inheritance Gown

A beautifully crafted dress showcased elegantly in an art gallery setting, highlighting its intricate design and artistry.

Jane explores ideas that reference her experience of the world. She works almost exclusively with woven tapestry, which she finds to be a compelling medium as it provides a means to develop content through imagery, material and process. She is drawn to the material identity of tapestry and committed to finding meaning and relevance in the process of handwork.

Jane is interested in the relationship between human activity and the natural world. The world around us has long provided a source for design. In Inheritance Series Gown # 2, #3, #4, she continues this practice by referencing the realities of a changing environment, creating pattern drawn from industrial decay, garbage and derelict environments. The images are derived from human created debris like rusting metal, crumbling concrete, abandoned brick, rubble and the natural phenomena that often reclaims these surfaces like mould, spores, lichen and moss. She uses a symbolic reference to a garment as a surrogate for the human body. In Inheritance Gown # 2, #3, #4 the object/garment is child sized to evoke the inheritor of our uncertain future.

She sees her recent works as a warning of environmental disaster and a call to pay attention and recognize our complicity in environment carelessness. She also hopes to offer the opportunity to celebrate skill and value of the handmade object, encouraging the viewer to look closely and pay attention. Actions that have a parallel value in our relationship to the world around us.