Dress Block - Triptych Installation at Leicester Museum and gallery

June 16th 2012 - Sept 2nd 2012

Jo Cope was invited by Leicester Museum and Gallery curator Hugo Worthy to create a stand alone commission to be exhibited during the Leicester leg of the Block Party touring exhibition whose curator was Lucy Orta in partnership with the Crafts Council.

The Block Party exhibition revealed the contemporary applications and creative possibilities of pattern cutting. It is timely to unearth the techniques of pattern cutting as we witness a renewed interest in, and perception of the bespoke. (words Mutualarts.com)

Cope created a conceptual fashion tryptic titled ‘Dress Block’ an interpretation of three separate but interrelated fashion elements: form, pattern and copy. The first piece was a human scale sepia wood body block, an adaptation of the three-dimensional making methods used in shoe making and millinery. The body block then functioned as a working tool to make the first pattern relief, created by wet molding felt directly over the body form. Piece three was a duplication placed directly onto the mannequin creating a reference to fashion production and the recognisable form of wearing on the body.

Jo Copes commission was made possible by funding from the Arts Council UK.

Photography Stephen Lynch