Pattern for Dress c. 1936

This dress pattern was made by Jean Peszel; it’s hard to say when exactly, but she lived a long life, 1855 to 1995. It’s essentially a technical drawing, using graphite on paper, the kind that is more often found in the service of engineering than art. But, hey, pattern-making *is* a kind of engineering, right? It’s an instruction manual for the imagination! It is a map for something that wants to exist, but is not yet real! What I find interesting are the little notes that Peszel has included – “center back - cut in fold” – these make me think about the way something flat becomes something volumetric. The actual pencil work is pretty straightforward – hard lines, measurements. There's a recipe inscribed in the bottom left corner of the piece, and the handwriting feels very intimate. And in the end it points to how art, design, and utility are all connected. It also makes me think of other artists like Ree Morton, who combined drawing with sculpture. In both cases, there’s a conversation about process and the possibility of things.