Trousseau is a series of site-specific sculptures created for Preston Manor. They are constructed from remnant cosmetic facial peel and reference the body as it relates to the unique history of Preston Manor. They are created by covering parts of my body with a gel facial masque. Once dried, I then peel the thin, plastic-like material off for use as fabric to construct the sculptures.The material has a fragile and transparent quality that retains a bodily form and an impression of the skin.

The hooped embroideries in the Morning Room include excerpts from period publications quoted in the Preston Manor visitor’s guide. The Edwardian era sources allude to prescribed cultural ideals as they relate to beauty, gender and domesticity: “be the embodiment of all that is simple and pure” (Lady’s World) and “let the walls be white so that by contrast our bodies might appear ruddy with health” (The House and Its Equipment).The hanging sculpture in the North-West Room contains glove forms peeled from my own hands. The sculptures are embellished with ruffles and buttons alluding to garment-like artefacts.

The sculptures have a ghostly exo-skin quality that evokes the accounts of paranormal events in Preston Manor. The objects function as metaphorical remnants of the past. I am interested in heirloom and domestic artefacts as loci of social and cultural constructs. These objects represent the way in which we invest our expectations of others and ourselves in the material world. There is an assumption in the heirloom tradition that one needs and wants the objects one receives. The shape of a unique hand in a glove challenges these notions. The receiver is attempting to “slip into the skin of another” that may just not fit. The ghosts here are not only paranormal but also cultural and historical.