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| Survivor's Field Dress from The Aether Wars |
You made it. You survived the mythical Aether Wars. You are changed forever, and it shows, even if you have no words for it. Few others will understand you now but when you meet the eyes of someone else who was there, you will know each other without speaking. It marks you but it's not a hardening: instead you are annealed — changed, yes, but still flexible.
This piece is part of a path I'm working on that explores the creation of artificial artifacts. I think we are drawn to things with provenance, with history, drawn to things that show use and wear — even when we know the marks are artificial. No, it's not the wear born of authentic use, which can only manifest with the added element of time. But still, the pull toward it is there. The appeal is real.
The Survivor's field dress is made from roughly hand-dyed linen, in an olive green with a burnished look, as if it was made from an overblown tent that has seen a lot of rain and wind. It's trimmed with olive stitching that is over-stitched with khaki thread. The rough red panel that runs down the center is top-stitched with multiple rows of khaki also, and the edges are frayed. Two peplum-ish side panels have layers of khaki and red stitching and raw frayed details that show through to the bottom layer of natural linen.
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| Survivor's Field Dress from The Aether Wars, detail |
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