handmade christening dress, placed in various locations in Wyoming

dimensions vary depending on location of installation

dress measures 36 in x 18 in

2013

 

Come Forth Again Out of the Water is an exploration of the significance of garment in ritual. The christening dress, handmade the same way a mother would make for her child, is placed in the river as a symbol of all the children baptized in the waters of an uncertain future. Westward expansion dreams left mothers with a difficult choice, risk everything for the possibility of a better future or stay where they were and face a future stifled by limitations. There was danger inherent in both choices, but many children and mothers were lost along the way to the West. Come Forth Again Out of the Water was created as a kind of personal ritual to memorialize these women and children.