Bridget Gurrie
she/her
***
'the pieces you left behind'
Designer: Bridget Gurrie @bridgetgurrie
Stylist: Zosia Slifirski Duckett @zosia.sd
Photographer: Annabelle Lim @thesleepersphoto
HMUA: Kat Min Hanh @kathyminhanh
Talent: Grace Falzon @thOttiespice & Brielle Ying @brielleying
Photography Space: Sucker @sucker
Squiggle Fabric Design: Sueann Chen @goofycups
Brielle wears the 'should I accept this emptiness in my chest now that you are no longer here?' jumpsuit
Brielle wears the 'you continue to follow me around like you did two years ago' dress
TW/CW: Mentions and touches on emotional abuse, harassment, death of a loved one, mental health and trauma
‘the pieces you left behind’ is a combined collection and textile project that explores personal reflections of experiences with heartbreak, grief and trauma. In particular, how these experiences and emotions can manifest internally and externally in the body. Through my course, I have become quite interested in the creation of soft sculpture pieces through textiles that are quite tactile with unique textures – the process of creating these pieces is also incredibly therapeutic. For this collection, I have used mixed textile pieces including hand-made felt, silk organza and hand-knit to help create visual representations based on my own and some of my loved one’s experiences.
About 2 years ago, I experienced the breakdown of an unhealthy and emotionally abusive relationship, in which I was then stalked and harassed by my ex-partner for the 8 months that followed. I felt that my voice was invalid, as my many requests to stop where completely disrespected. It was messy, painful, and extremely traumatic, which has had a massive impact on not only myself but the people that are around me. During the same year, I also lost my grandmother suddenly; my first experience with death of a loved one. As anyone would understand, it was a truly horrific and confronting time. She was and still is an extremely important part of my life and upbringing, and also experienced her own immense pain and trauma throughout her life.
Two years on and I still struggle every day with the weight of these experiences, finding it extremely hard to beable move on and process what has happened. Even though I am very lucky to have such immense support from those I love and am now in a stable and healthy relationship, these experiences and emotions still affect me greatly. And this is just my own experience.
Grace wears the 'i am not a gentle woman' felted set with the 'i am the one who carries it' bag.
Brielle wears the 'should I accept this emptiness in my chest now that you are no longer here?' jumpsuit
Grace wears the 'i am not a gentle woman' felted set with the 'i am the one who carries it' bag.
“Because of this, I want to be able to use my project and practise to not only help myself process these experiences and their effects, but also to hopefully help others who are struggling right now, to feel somewhat seen and heard. I think in some ways, this project is allowing me to take back my own voice and
narrative through
what I love doing: creating things for the body.
I do however want to acknowledge that though this project, I am very privileged to have a platform and outlet to express my experiences.
Each and every person on this world has had to endure their own pain and trauma to different extents uniquely to them. This is a conceptualisation of my own and loved one’s experiences, and I want to recognise that this is not a representation of all human experience. However in saying this, I do truly hope my work can provide some ability for the viewer, to feel seen or heard in their own struggles, even in the smallest way.
I am so lucky to be able to have collaborated with such incredible creatives and friends on this project: making the process so much more rewarding. I have collaborated with Sueann and Rory who run the small business GoofyCups, to develop a fabric print with Sueann’s squiggle motifs. The design itself helps to communicate the idea of grief, trauma and heartbreak being vivid, intricate, and continual”
Brielle wears the 'i am not a gentle woman' felted set, holding the 'i'm self-destructive' is not a good enough excuse for being a shit person' tainted heart.
Grace wears the 'you continue to follow me around like you did two years ago' dress, holding the 'the fragile heart'.
“Further to this, I am very grateful to have worked with such an incredible team of individuals for the shoot of this project – their talent and input was so special, creating quite an emotional experience to see them all bring the work into such a thoughtfully curated context”
Grace wears the 'you continue to follow me around like you did two years ago' dress, with 'the fragile heart'.
