SUSAN CUTTS GALLERY

'ashes of roses'
2002
280 boxes, each containing two pairs of shoes and twenty-three roses.

'ashes of roses' was inspired by the 1727-1747 church records of St. Mary's Church, Chichester. Through the records I was able to follow the lives of the parishioners, revealing happy and sad events, events now forgotten - other people's memories. With 'ashes of roses' I wanted to release long forgotten events from the pages of our lives, by using images as familiar now as then, inspiring remembrance and reminiscence. The shoes represent the past and the future, with the intertwined laces acting as a link. The rose is used to celebrate and commiserate; to reflect and to remember. At first sight all the boxes look the same, but on closer inspection each pair of shoes and each rose is different - like our memories. The lid is taken off the box, footsteps are retraced and memories unfold like the petals of a rose.

'dressed to kill'
2006


front	side	rear

'fairy tale'
2006

Fairy Tales as we know them are safe, respectable and moral. In the original versions they looked unflinchingly at the darker side of people’s lives, particularly that of women, the poor and the disenfranchised.

If life is a ‘fairy tale’ the paper dresses reflect the fragility of the ‘happy ending’

The language of clothing, contemporary and historical, intrigues me. The empty dress or shoe is a familiar image which, when repeated, emphasizes the dialogue each piece suggests. Our feet shape the shoe – by the way we walk the way we stand – making it as individual as a thumbprint and like a thumbprint it can expose and betray. In Stiletto I was seduced by the shape of the shoe, the height of the heel, the curve of the arch. Some shoes are never worn, others worn only on special occasions and there are those worn until they fall apart. These shoes tell the story of our lives – the dance danced the dream dreamt. To make them in paper is an indulgence – they will never be worn, they are as fragile as the hopes, dreams, secrets and memories they evoke.

Inspired by 'ashes of roses' in 'lullaby', I try to capture the everyday ephemera of life - the smile, the kiss, the frown, the tear. As in a lullaby I have used a simple language and melody.

LULLABY (1)
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes:
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby:
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
extract 'Lullaby' Thomas Dekker
1570 -1641

LULLABY (2)
Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
Down will come baby, cradle, and all.
Attributed to a Pilgrim from the Mayflower and said to be the first poem written on American soil.

Each lullaby is: One panel 60cm x 60cm Four panels 30cm x 30cm
Sixteen panels 15cm x 15cm Displayed as triptychs

RING A RING O’ ROSES

5 PIECES each consisting of one bodice and 100+ roses at base.
Each approx height 5’ width at base 3’diameter
Materials: Own handmade paper from abaca fibre and recycled paper.
Sponsored by: Khadi Papers and Seawhite of Brighton.

Ring a ring o’ roses
A pocket full of posies,
A tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down

It is commonly assumed that ‘ring a ring o’ roses’, dates back to the Great Plague when a rosy rash was the symptom of the plague, posies of herbs carried as protection and sneezing a final fatal symptom. However, there is no written record of this nursery rhyme before 1881. A myth dispelled perhaps but interestingly in 1949 the following was recorded.

Ring a ring o’ geranium
A pocket full of uranium
Hiro Shima, Hiro Shima
All fall down

‘Ring a ring o’ roses’ is a simple nursery rhyme which instantly rises to the lips of small children whenever they join hands in a circle – I hope this piece reminds us of children in the 21^st century who’s lives are still cut short by disease and war.

Commissioned by the Faversham Society to commemorate Faversham's shoemaking history and the Saint Crispin legend. The starting point for the work was a pair of shoes belonging to Pope John Paul II, given to the Vigevano Museum - Saints Crispin and Crispinian Consortium, Italy. These red shoes inspired me to research other 'red shoes' with a history. Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Red Shoes' had Karen the orphan aspiring to transcend her status and, of course, the 1948 film starring Moira Shearer portrays the 'Red Shoes' as the story of a contemporary ballerina. In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Glinda's magic wand moves the shiny red shoes from the Wicked Witch of the East to Dorothy's feet, who then skips along the Yellow Brick Road to Oz. Karen sacrificed her feet, Moira Shearer's character sacrificed love, the Wicked Witch of the East is sacrificed for the red shoes. The papal connection is the Eucharist commemorating Christ's sacrifice and, of course, the Saint Crispin legend is all about sacrifice and shoes. A tenuous link maybe and the 'red shoe' as an icon, maybe not, but shoes symbolise historical changes across time and across cultures and will continue to do so for as long as we have feet and a need to use them.