Grief Becomes Her: Fashion Connections in Daemon & Saudade

This essay will present a portion of a body of artwork entitled Daemon & Saudade that was exhibited at the Art Gallery of Northumberland in Cobourg, Ontario from November 15th, 2018, through January 13th, 2019. Photography, fashion, textiles, and jewellery were used in the creation of this interdisciplinary work to explore stories of grief, loss, and the careful crafting of identity. Images and wearable sculptures document time, emotion, and circumstance as they convey personal narratives derived from journaling and sketching. Acrylic and ceramic mourning jewellery show the physical embodiment and beautification of emotion through embellished personal tokens that forever link fashion and grief. The work in Daemon & Saudade demonstrates a role that fashion plays in articulating identity, allowing us to choose what we reveal or conceal and even to mask the experiences and emotions of our daily lives to those closest to us. Collectively, it captures and preserves the marks left on us by the experiences we live. Whether it is the loss of a loved one or a relationship, grief is a condition, a state, an emotion, and a process we all share.