Thursday, August 5, 2010

Dear Stranger (Dress 171)

Dear Stranger
I lent you the shade of my shoddily made spotty umbrella, before the wind turned it out- I think we must have made a lovely image, two girls, laden with bags, holding an inside-out umbrella for dear life- somewhat like an alteration I made to a statue in the gardens once. It’s a Grecian copy- A hammer thrower mid-swing.
There was an article in the paper about it, and how every day someone stole the brass hammer, until the authorities, sick of the expense, replaced it with a spray painted length of broom handle and Styrofoam (or something equally cheap). That got stolen too- It seems it was more mischief than brass. I went past that statue twice a day for four years- and like clockwork, there he’d be; straining on the weight of cheap plastic in the morning, and then, in the evening, the hammer-thrower, straining on the weight of air. One day, at the death of my umbrella, I brought a couple of friends with me to give him the upturned object. Needless to say he looked rather silly. So did we (I suspect).
In the morning, my umbrella was gone.
This is all that is left.
(I’m ok with that. I think it is my nicest design to date.)
All my love,
IP

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