Mig Dann, Love is in the bag

Audio Description

This work consists of six vacuum-sealed clothing affixed to the wall in a grid. There are two columns and three rows of bags which are hung from knee-height to approximately 3 meters overhead. The bags each measure 35 centimeters wide by 70 centimeters tall, and rest on very shallow white shelves.

The bags are transparent and their plastic gives a gloss surface sheen to the contents contained within. A variety of crushed clothes can be seen in the bags, including blouses, scarves, shirts and shawls. The fabrics are not cleanly folded or arranged but rather appear messily, pressing against and falling on top of one another. In one work, a sleeve of a red plaid shirt with white and black stripes sits on top a light tan plaid garment and what appears to be a shawl, with geometric patterns of yellow, black and white. In another bag, a dark blue dress with white polka dots appears next to a dark mauve and indigo floral print and a higher-contrast bright pink, orange and magenta scarf. Each bag seems to include about eight to twelve items with different colours and patterns.

This work responds to the sudden death of the artist’s long-term partner. As the artist writes, “More than any other object, clothes are closely connected with the body of the absent wearer. This work embraces the contents within––the life-enhancing, humorous, generous living loving human she was––her final breath an exhalation reimagined and contained by a plastic skin.” Mig Dann is a Melbourne / Narrm-based artist, writer and researcher, whose practice is multidisciplinary and autobiographical. In 2022 she completed her practice-led PhD in the School of Art at RMIT University. Dann’s work is informed by memory and forgetting, absence and presence, feminism, queer culture and decades of lived experience. She explores the politics of memory, time, identity and personal cultural history through sculptural forms.

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Artwork credit is: Mig Dann (from Australia, born 1941). Love is in the bag, 2022. Worn textiles, plastic.