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Touch is intertwined with vision--we cannot see without wanting to touch, or touch without forming an image. I work with textiles because I desire tactility more tangible than vision. The body is the font of tactility; it contains the ability to touch and the desire to be touched. The body is also inscribed with cultural myths, with anxiety as well as desire. The body can be read as a text.

Das Unheimliche ("the uncanny") is defined by Freud as a forced repetition. Everything in the body is repeated. Everything here is repeated. The symbol of teeth is repeated; the act of the stitch is repeated; the shape of the photograph is repeated; gender as performance is repeated. Unfamiliarity loses us easily. We get lost within repeated shapes and signs-- these are teeth. Or they could be. They could be the size of the tips of our fingers. But they are white, and white in the body is bone. Teeth are bone. Teeth are that size. Or they could be. The scale is a little off. Some of them loom larger. Some of them are too small. Some of them are too untidy. They seem too pointed. But most of our teeth are pointed. How often do we look at our teeth? How often do we look at our teeth and not see a smile?

Vagina dentata is a myth. It isn't real. But it is still powerful, like all myths informing our cultural consciousness. For me, the myth not only represents external phallocentric domination, but internal self-surveillance, making sure that we measure up to all of the constructs we assume are true. I am transforming the image of teeth and turning it into a protective sign by embroidering this motif into these dresses. The seams of these dresses are sites of vulnerability, the place where the dresses are most easily picked apart. The repetitive mark of thread over time coalesces into an image and imbues the design with the intention of the embroiderer. Placing teeth over the seams charges that site with protection that is ambiguously defensive and aggressive. As the viewer touches the image with their gaze, the clenched teeth deny the viewer the pleasure of gazing upon a female body.
Presence is different from representation; the actuality of a body is different from an image. Different forms of representation mediate the body in different ways. Representing the body as an image or object can easily progress into objectification. Having the body remain embodied, subjective, able to move around and through the space, talking and consenting, denies objectification. But the interaction can be uncomfortable. These bodies are still mediated, occupying a threshold between being themselves and being art. Boundaries are accentuated: internal/external, inside/outside, performer/spectator, self/other.  There is closeness and anxiety throughout the space, being lost in a nightmare place, being trapped within forced repetition.
When I have been talking to other people about this project, they bring up their cavities, fillings, braces, caps, surgeries, orthodontia. I have a feeling that we are defined by our dentistry.