"A Stitch in Time," an installation
of three dresses by Clinton Hill artist June Gaddy, is on display
through Dec. 28 at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library.
The exhibit in the Lobby Gallery includes this mid-19th century
style, life-size gown, "For Harriet Who Dreamed She Could
Fly" (pictured). This 1997 dress is inspired by a biography
of Harriet Tubman that said she dreamed she could fly before
she fled to freedom, Gaddy told GO Brooklyn. The multimedia work
is embellished with feathers at its cuffs, bedecked with cowrie
shells and silkscreened scenes of enslaved Africans are appliqued
around its hem.
Gaddy’s works are paired with panels, supplied by the Brooklyn
Collection of the Brooklyn Public Library, of articles from the
old Brooklyn Eagle that correspond with the themes of the dresses:
Tubman speaking at the Bridge Street AME Church, Brooklyn’s historic
Weeksville and the migration of blacks from the South to the
North.
"I have always sewed, since I was small, and I hadn’t thought
of it as an art form," said Gaddy. Then she encountered
a professor at Brooklyn College, while she was pursuing her master’s
degree in Fine Arts, who encouraged the students "to rethink
the art process."
"Instead of rushing to the art store to buy supplies, to
connect with materials you are using," she said. "Using
things on hand.
"My grandmother and my aunts made their own clothes, and
dolls and doll furniture. This is something I had always done,
and it’s a way to connect with them, too."
Gaddy said she was also inspired by a hunter’s shirt from Mali
she had seen on display at the Museum for African Art in SoHo.
"That hunter kept the shirt his whole life and it had hair,
teeth, claws from different animals and different amulets and
mirrors," said Gaddy. "It told this man’s story as
a hunter. It was very personal and that made an impression on
me. How could I use that idea in an American context? It all
came together at the same time to get me started."
Also on display is "Tir Non Og" (sic), an exhibition
of artist books and dioramas by Windsor Terrace resident Rene
Lynch, in the display cases on the second floor through Nov.
16.
Lynch has designed each case as a complete environment, with
masked dolls frolicking among cloth flowers, stuffed birds, and
animals in settings that suggest a paradise lost, "the land
of eternal youth" suggested by the Gaelic name "Tir
Na Nog." Fairytale-like books are also displayed with their
pages open, revealing stories relating to the scenes in the cases.
The Central Library is located at Grand Army Plaza. For library
hours and more information, call (718) 230-2100 or visit the
Web site at www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.