The Lodz Blouse Trilogy explores memory and experience imbued in the clothes we wear. Through a series of interventions on blouses Goldsmith undertakes a series of acts to reveal latent matter within three garments. Referencing the passing down of clothes within families, alongside the suggestion of inherited memory, the work reveals a tea party.

The Lodz Blouse Trilogy draws upon the photographic work of Henryk Ross, specifically the piece ‘A party in the Lodz Ghetto’. Polish Jewish photographer Henryk Ross (1910-1991) was one of the official Lodz ghetto photographers. Ross took identification card photos whilst illicitly photographing the daily events of the ghetto. In 1944 he hid (buried) his collection of photographs, to later return and unearth them.

Discovering Ross’s work many years ago, after a visit to Poland’s Lodz Textile Triennial, Goldsmith has been haunted by this photograph. In 2014 she was given permission to use the photograph in her work and embarked on a series of work that hid and revealed this imagery in clothing.

The installation at UCA Canterbury brings together textile works that utilise a range of textile methods and technologies to explore and present ideas around the power of cloth. These include garment construction/deconstruction, digital and hand embroidery/stitch and digital dye sublimation printing.

‘A Party in the Lodz Ghetto’ by Henryk` Ross is used with special permission from the Museum and Art Gallery, Ontario.