Hands drawn in pattern modeled by dressmaker theater costumer Carmel Dundon. In hallway at the Tirocchi house being restored by Dirt Palace Projects, on Broadway Providence, RI
“Anna and Laura Tirocchi, Italian immigrants from Guarcino, owned a prominent dressmakers shop in the Federal Hill area of Providence, Rhode Island, from 1915 to 1947. The Tirocchi sisters made dresses, blouses, and coats” All pieces made at the house with a crew of local women dressmakers and seamstresses they provided employment for.
For wallpaper background swirling ideas... I've been thinking a lot about immigrant people and their craft work or folk art used as survival. Both as economic self sufficiency and therapy, messaging and record keeping and skilled work in hand crafts. Also I was thinking about retaining and not losing parts of your past. Not losing memory of stories, narratives, and skill in hand work techniques handed down. And also the muscle memory in the act of sewing that can stay with you through your life if you learned it as a child. And with that spiraling around was also the idea of time and labor in sewing too and the invisibility of that labor. And also thinking about doing work that is at home which they were doing while also creating networks and friendships with other stitchers and workers, is also pretty persistent in my ideas in the pattern. I've also been reading about women using memory as a site for resistance. And also thinking about the home and ones house as a space to restore ones spirit. Anyway...remembrance rituals and home and immigrant workers and beauty in craft were the tops hits I was going for.
Motifs are details of hand embroidered parts of the sisters dresses. Art that was inspired by nature, floral morifs etc. Showing also some basic and basting stitch markers, often hidden on the inside of garments. For all their pieces I'm sure more then one person worked on and touched a dress, the pattern, bead work, etc.. Hands drawn in pattern modeled by genius dressmaker Carmel Dundon, granddaughter of a seamstress, my boss and friend.
