The Round Room - Interactive Installation by Kerri Weymouth
Kerri Weymouth took us for an in depth guided tour of her interactive installation 'The Round Room' which was exhibited at the Griffith Regional Art Gallery's Each For Equal Exhibition for International Women's Day.
Having recently gone through my uncle’s dress patterns, John Claringbold and Ross Weymouth had been couture dress designers from the 50’s to 90’ dressing many clients from different establishments, but mainly from the Nicholas Building on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane in Melbourne. I worked for them as a teenager mainly hand beading and sewing and was very close to them.
While going through these patterns, many of them had been repaired over the years with layers of sticky tape adding to their character, as the layers of life and the creativity that emerged from them.
Going through their old patterns gave me a deeper response than I had thought. I felt a strong feeling of sadness at first and then as I moved through and repaired them I felt a satisfaction in doing this for them and their legacy as I neatly laid them one by one in a brand new archival box that I purchased for them to live in, I felt a sense of achievement in looking after this history.
While I repaired and connected with these patterns working intersubjective with them, it made me think of the many clients’ these patterns had been used for to create beautiful gowns for their special occasions. Then thinking a bit deeper I remembered the requests they would make, like.
” I’d like a style or colour to make me look slimmer” being one of the main ones
Or they would want the sleeves to cover their arms, that they felt weren’t firm enough to show, or skirts to fall below the knee so not to show their wobbly knees.
Thinking about the way these women would respond and feel about their bodies started to make me think about body image and how so many women don’t feel happy enough with their bodies and want to hide certain areas of their bodies, worried about being judged by society.
This is what inspired me with the art installation that I created for international Women’s Day, I thought it was relevant as most women can respond to these thoughts at some stage in their lives.
Also having lived and felt through my journey with Alopecia over the last 3 years and having lost all the hair from my body, I felt I resonated and connected with the subject of appearance and body image on a deeper level as I did back then when I was beading those beautiful gowns.
As a society I feel we need to give ourselves slack, we are the same person with the same feeling no matter what we look like. We shouldn’t waste our precious time fighting the demons of body image and the way society and the media brain wash us to feel.
It is a basic human instinct to want to be accepted, it should not be judged on how a person looks, whether we have hair or not, big bums, thin lips, overweight or too skinny. If we could learn to accept ourselves and others for who we are, to be thankful for what we have and for the goodness of our souls, it would be a kinder and happier world.
I’m inviting you into the round room and to think about those negative thoughts that may have found a place in your head. Write those thoughts onto a stone and leave the stone behind in the round room.
When leaving the room there is a log with positive stones on the outside that I have painted with love, this is my gift to you to remind you to love yourself no matter what.
Leave a negative and take a positive.
Each for Equal: IWD Exhibition | February 21 2020 - March 29 2020 Griffith Regional Art Gallery
The Round Room: Patterns, Fabric and the Love of Life © Kerri Weymouth 2020
A film by Camille Whitehead for Western Riverina Arts
www.westrivarts.com.au, Executive Director Aanya Whitehead
Voiceover - Kerri Weymouth
Music - Flowing (Serene), Endless Wave Vol. 2 by Gabrielle Roth © 2000 Raven Recording
Filmed in March 2020
We would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Wiradjuri people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which this was filmed.
This film has been made under Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommerical - NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format 'in its entirety'. If you remix, transform or build upon these materials, please seek permission from Kerri Weymouth to distribute.
