“The Victorian bodice talks of how it is designed to restrict its wearer, to hold her in while holding her back. I wrote this from my own perspective of being a carer and how sometimes you feel invisible, just like the broken bodice thats in the box, under the table.”

Out of sight, out of mind? 2022
Created during a residency at the Museum of Cornish Life

A narrated sound piece made during a residency in the textile archives in the Museum of Cornish Life. The work was inspired by a Victorian mourning bodice that was too damaged to be catalogued and held within the collection. Alice collaborated with a dress archivist to understand specific construction elements of the garment and to give it a voice. She combined this with a discussion around the restricted lives of Victorian women. In the sound piece the bodice tells how it was has ‘two hidden hook and eye clasps that secure a collar around a throat, around a voice.’