Ideas about how the kneeler and the wimple will work in the gallery space

I have decided, after consultation with Tom, to hang to wimple from the gallery wall using a loop or hook. 

The idea is that it will look like a kind of limp empty shell or ghost. It will obscure and complicate the text which hopefully will encourage folk to stretch out the piece and read it. I am really keen to generate relationship and interaction.

This decision feels both subversive and subtle. It robs the vestments of their institutional power and pomp; they will look floppy and daft, like a costume. It's a playful choice and this makes the piece more accessible.

The wimple being hung up like this is also a metaphorical deflation, piercing or "hanging up" of the toxic power constructs that rob nuns of so much including their autonomy, freedom and sexuality. It doesn't feel like too much of a leap that this idea could be super imposed onto survivors of other kinds of abuse by the audience. I hope so because I want this conversation to be broader than just catholicism.

My piece has been moved to above a radiator in the gallery space which is delicious serendipity because it looks like an altar. Or rather is a parody of an altar. Life mimicking art. I couldn't have contrived it better and am so grateful for their choice to move it as they have. 

I hope that the wimple can be hung below the piece so that the audience can connect with it and read the verse as they kneel. This feels really cohesive. It will be a ritual; like a faux religious ceremony.

I will go to the castle in the next week to experiment with where the wimple will fit without detracting from neighboring pieces.