‘… I had stumbled upon a sacred site overwhelmed by the presence of a lived life.’
A couple of years ago, on the grounds of Farley Farm, East Sussex, England, former home of the Surrealists Lee Miller and Ronald Penrose, Torres found herself off the beaten track. At a distance stood a small red brick house and through one of its windows, white papery figures caught her eye. Curious, she moved closer and peered in to get a better view. The small room housed a row of white garment bags hanging from two clothing rails and a table where a narrow life size box lay covered with copious amounts of white tissue paper. Her imagination ignited into uncanny narratives. She felt she had stumbled upon a sacred site overwhelmed by the presence of a lived life. Later that day she discovered these garment bags, on route to archival storage, contained the clothing archive of Lee Miller.
What Lee Wore delves into the unseen, exploring the power of imagination and aura through the lenses of perception and memory. It invites the viewer to experience what cannot be fully grasped, offering a contemplative journey into the realms of the intangible. Images of white crepe garment bags perform, protect and preserve the presence of Miller.
The installation includes What Lee Wore, 11 ways, 2022, a row of polaroids featuring various forensic-like mis en scenes of garment bags alluding to the sculptural, What Lee Wore no.1, no.2 and no.3, 2024, polaroid emulsion lifts that morph and dance on glass, Anima 1, Anima 2, 2024, emulsion lift scans that seem to float on Japanese paper and What Lee Wore, untitled no.3 and no.10, large scale digital prints exuding a haunting ephemerality and What Lee Wore, Circle of Animas, 2024, a series of emulsion lifts on a round perspex disc.
What Lee Wore, Installation, London 2025
