Goldsmith examines perceived latent matter in worn clothing; how can textiles provoke contemplation around human experience, especially at the extremes of our existence, the end of life? The research and resulting artworks are concerned with exploring the fine veneer of cloth, our clothes, which stands between us and the world. What trace of our existence is left behind in the clothes we wear? And, how is this perceived, translated and communicated once we are no longer here and all that is left is cloth?

Supported by the Arts Council and Wellcome Trust research emerges from the collaborative and parallel practices of maximising narrative in worn clothing by Goldsmith and Dr. Alison Fendley, (Senior Biologist Forensic Science Service). This dialogue enlivens and expands knowledge in a reciprocal manner. Goldsmith drew upon theories from forensic science especially Locard’s ‘Exchange Principle’, an hypothesise that every contact with people or places result in an exchange of physical materials.

The resulting artwork is distinctive in drawing references, methodologies and theories from forensic science and psychiatry to explore and translate ideas around bereavement, especially the role of clothes and utilises innovative textiles processes (digital dye-sublimation) presented in a fine art context.

A child’s glove in the piece ‘Dark Times’ is dwarfed by a piece of anthracite coal (a beautiful, dark dense memento mori for life and death on earth). The reclaimed glove carries not just the DNA but the ghostly image of the wearer. The cordon tape around the stains on the ‘landscape’ of a girl’s splayed dress in ‘Daughters Dress’ mimics crime scene etiquette. Denoting a meaningful scene conserved for inspection and reflection, it is ripe with latent knowledge. Stains emerging from the garment’s seams take on the visual coding of Rorschach

The International Textile Research Centre Conference: ‘Trauma. Grief. Loss: the art of bereavement’ was held on 15 May 2015 at University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK.