Satin Cages, 1997
Concept and models, Judith Clark
Director: James Norton
Reading: Alessandra Grignaschi (nom d' art Alessandra Scott)
The dome of the Institute of Costume Research was formerly a prison for wayward women, designed to protect them from themselves and others. The secrets of these women were preserved on condition that their bodies were incarcerated. The crinoline was an extension of the dark cavity of the body, an external skeleton. These mobile cages swaying rhythmically were the very instruments of crime, drawing attention to the female form.
A Prison gets to be a friend -
Between its Ponderous face
And Ours - a Kinsmanship express -
And in its narrow Eyes -
We come to look with gratitude
For the appointed Beam
It deal us -
We learn to know the Planks -
That answer to Our feet -
So miserable a sound - at first -
Nor ever now - so sweet -
As plashing in the Pools -
When Memory was a Boy -
But a Demurer Circuit -
A Geometric Joy -
Not so real
The Check of Liberty -
As this Phantasm Steel -
Whose features - Day and Night-
Are present to us - as Our Own -
And as escapeless - quite -
The narrow Round - the Stint -
The slow exchange of Hope -
For something passiver - Content
Too steep for looking up -
The Liberty we knew
Avoided - like a Dream -
Too wide for any Night but Heaven -
If That - indeed - redeem -
A Prison Gets to be a Friend; Emily Dickinson
The petticoat remain' d a point in doubt
Till WREN was forc' d to help our Beauties out;
A Roman Cupola he show' d in print,
And thence of Modern Hoops, they took the hint;
The vast Circumference gives Air below,
At large they tread, and more Majestick show.
Odalisque Production Limited, 1997
