Fire and Ice Original Artist Statement
Below you can read what I originally wrote to accompany my Fire and Ice costume from when I displayed it in a school exhibition. I have also included some retrospective thoughts a little further down.
Artist Statement
Madison
9th Grade
Fire and Ice
This dress represents fire and ice and a few other things with that. I designed and made it in a night class at Otis Art College. I made it using some light airy slightly stretchy fabric and wire. I took the fabric and stretched across the wire, which I had bent into shapes and attached to a set of two rings, which I used as my structure for the dress. I draped fabric underneath the rings to cover everything up and finish the skirt. I created the bodice using an apparently sexy corset (which is gonna look pretty bad on my mum’s amazon account!) I got it off amazon because I was on a time limit and it takes so long to make these things otherwise. I covered it with fabric adding a little extra at the top for modesty (because I look half naked otherwise) and added some sleeves and voila! I bent a long thick wire into wings that are attached by the snugness of the corset. It stays surprisingly well between my bare back and the corset and is surprisingly comfortable. For this dress a chain of things inspired it. What really sparked the idea most that is the idea of someone being on fire. It was inspired by things like the Hunger Games or the Witch Trials that make it look like someone was engulfed in flames. So I drew that out and added a variety of colors and had the idea to do an ice version. I couldn’t choose which version I wanted to do so decided to do fire and ice design. At school I was having quite a hard time. I caught people gossiping about me behind my back and I kept doubting myself. It was all very sneaky which made it hard to confront. So that is what that dress came to symbolize. The ice was how cold and broken I felt and how cold people were being towards me. After a while the sadness turned into anger at the people who were causing me pain and trouble as well as poisoning friends against me. The fire is the anger I feel at them. The experience of expressing myself through costume and making new friends at Otis college helped me through this difficult time. It gave me the strength to confront some of the people who had treated me unkindly and I look forward to putting this episode behind me and spending more time with my closest friends.
retrospective Commentary
This design really meant something to me during a time where I was really struggling. While I was working on that costume I was surrounded by warm and caring people and doing something I loved. In that environment, on those Friday nights, were the few moments where I got to be myself and be happy in a long line of sad. Something that I didn’t note in the original artist statement was what the wings came to represent. They came to represent hope, resurrection, rising above it all. This piece of work came to symbolize a hope and a resilience that kept me going. It was an important moment in my life and has become an important symbol to me. It’s now a reminder that even when things look rough everything is going to be okay and things will get better.