About

Biography

Pamela Dale has practiced as a professional artist since 1984. For the past 20 years and more she has worked across the Art, Fashion and Design worlds. She has exhibited widely both in Australia and internationally (France, Holland, Japan). She works across many mediums such as drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, embroidery and assemblages.

In 1993 she was awarded the prestigious ‘Keith & Elisabeth Murdoch Traveling Fellowship’ from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University. This Fellowship allowed her to travel and study in France, England and Spain. During which she completed a studio residency, at the renown Print Making studio, Atelier Lacourrier et Frelaut in Paris.

Since then she has travelled widely, working, creating new artworks and exhibiting in many countries.

Assemblages

Her Assemblage work began in 1994 and has evolved over the past 15 years, reminding, remembering and recreating the wonder of travel and adventure through the costumes, shoes and gloves worn and the construction of disguise and dress.

From collected souvenirs, wrappings, shopping bags and labels Dale creates unique costumes that recall stories, places and times of adventures. Playing with perceptions these works simultaneously  trace both representation and ambiguous fantasies, embroidering over abstracted maps and consumer refuse to evoke a kind of perfect souvenir- a crystallization of place. Diverse fragments and playful humor with words coalesce in a sophisticated recycling of materials that form the stuff of life.

Dales modus operandi is when traveling to collect paper ephemera that she either uses in life or finds in flea markets, this material includes wrappings, shopping bags, vintage maps, labels, sugar sachets etc. Returning to the studio, these items are transformed into art materials, patch-worked together to create unique costumes and accessories.

Her method is to firstly complete a drawing of the style & design, carefully locating the scraps of salvaged ephemera. A paper pattern is then made and then carefully cut out. This is then hand stitched together exactly replicating couture methods. No glue is used in the construction and the works are entirely hand sewn. The costume is then carefully and precisely sewn to the backing paper and drawn elements to the design are executed. Using her considerable skill in paper construction these works have a 3 dimensional element and replicate the body and form as if they were being in reality worn. The outcome of these assemblages is a capturing of the patchwork of life and considered experience.

“A painter, drawer and Assemblage artist, Pamela's works adopt a technique in which traditional, non-artistic materials are positioned to form a three dimensional image. Her assemblage works are chic, romantic and fashion conscious, richly colored and textured. Through her work she attempts to bridge the gap between art and life, between the everyday and commonplace over precious materials and refinement, the temporary and ephemeral over the lasting.”

Amanda Clarke, Tudor House Art Catalogue.