Sumptuary Survival – Bearing Witness 2024, Recycled fabrics, thread, silk lining, 150 x 80 cm

Sumptuary laws regulated clothing, ornamentation, food, drink, and other forms of luxury, imposing a hierarchy of consumption. These laws prohibited certain ranks of persons from wearing specified cloths, garments, or ornamentation. They can be traced back to antiquity, but they proliferated rapidly during the later Middle Ages and Renaissance. These laws embodied a paradox: they distributed luxury by rank by imposing constraints on luxury. The sumptuary ethic was strongly implicated in some of the most crucial phases of the expansion of urbanization and the transition from mercantile to manufacturing capitalism.

Additionally, sumptuary laws weren’t just used to strengthen the social hierarchy but also to identify those deemed to be outside of it. In medieval Europe, this often meant Jews and Muslims. Minorities were subject to dress codes for easy identification and ease of discrimination. The spirit of this distinction did not disappear altogether and was revived in Nazi Germany by imposing the yellow badge as a race discriminator..ii

What are Little Girls Made Of? 2021, Cotton lace, spices, confectionery, plastic netting, nut shells, mother of pearl buttons, galvanised iron hooks, string, sundry beach pickings, vintage household linens, 19th Century wooden dolls bed, 45 x 65 cm

Channelled Memories - Extended 2024, Stripped ethernet cables, cable connectors, 180 x 180 cm (approx.)

The three exhibited works depict ways in which materials and methods can subvert and, at the same time, add to the exposition of meaning.

i https://www.thecollector.com/what-are-sumptuary-laws/

ii https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/sumptuary-laws