(M)others and (D)aughters
Part I
Cuddihy imagines, folds, colours and forms paper into skirts, aprons and fans. She adds; the taffeta skirt in that glossy magazine was unobtainable; beyond my monetary reach! Those colours! So brilliant and clever! So painterly!
Maybe I wanted those colours more than I wanted the skirt. I decided to make the whole skirt, in miniature, to scale with the photograph.
The little fan is from an on-going series, of a woman delivering vaccine by boat in Peru. I loved her bold stance, and the shape of her skirt.
The Pleated Fans, referencing the body – the colour of the pink newspaper pages; the pleated folded women peeking out from the folds – in this case, Beyonce and Cate – advertising jewellery in pages from the Financial Times; those unobtainable jewels, as well as their beauty! But I can make those
pages into something else – another desirable, mysterious, alluring object or body.
Apron Painting
The checked apron began as an attempt through repeated brush stokes to create a faltering green grid. I kept the sheet for a while as it was, but in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation to make it into a facsimile of my first ever sewing project as a 10 year old – a green gingham apron. I followed the same rules, except instead of gathering fabric with rows of running stitches pulled
together, I stapled the paper onto a paper band, cut from the same sheet of painted paper.
Mikey Cuddihy – works (from right):
Taffeta Skirt, 2023
(pencil, watercolour on khadi paper (smooth), gathered and stapled)
Taffeta skirt (miniature), 2023
watercolour on paper, gathered and stapled
Woman delivering Vaccine in Peru, 2021/23
(newsprint, watercolour on paper, wooden spoon)
Magazine page (HTSI Magazine, FT) 2022
Pleated Fans (FT newspaper pages, pleated)
Beyonce
Cate
Ulla’s Apron (1,080 squares) 2023
(watercolour on paper, gathered and stapled)
Naomi Salaman – works from the left
Esther and her mother c1917 (pencil on paper 1000 x 1500mm)
Esther, skirt, hat c1998 (pencil on paper 1000 x 1500mm)