Dresses for Giants – ACS Margate

‘Exploring the gossamer veneer that lies between us and the world, artist Shelly Goldsmith uses the psychological theory ‘Locus of Control’ to understand how we locate our sense of self. In her hands, discarded textiles become elegiac memoranda. A polyester wedding gown is transformed into a poetic provocation; fragments of children’s frilly dresses become sites of melancholy’.

The exhibition Dresses for Giants presents the last phase of Goldsmiths investigation into the psychologist Julian B. Rotter’s theory Locus of Control. ‘This work amalgamates tidal pool photographs and  vintage polyester wedding dresses purchased in Cincinnati, USA. Large in physical scale, the title refers to the personalities of the individuals who wear the dress, not their physicality as giants.’ 

‘Together with Goldsmith’s interventions –photography and dye-sublimation – the dress form becomes a canvas and an idol, the ultimate staging for both Rotter’s influential theory and the artist’s quest to better understand our own fragility’. 

Dal Chodha Editor Archivist Addendum