Ventilation Dress II

‘Ventilation Dress II’ consists of digitally printed vinyl inflatable created as part of ‘Da Vinci Engineered: From Renaissance mechanics to contemporary art’ exhibition, presenting the opportunity to rethink my practice in relation to engineering and Leonardo Da Vinci. ‘Ventilation Dress II’ is a rework of an inflatable sculpture originally created in collaboration with Steve Swindell’s at Snibston Discovery Museum in Coalville, Leicestershire based on an auxiliary ventilation fan installed at Snibston coalmining village in in 1976, embellished with the dress design of the 1972 National Coal Queen. In 1976, noise abatement regulations lead to the replacement of the ventilation fan at Snibston colliery. The new “Silent Fan” was the national prototype for an engineered solution to contain the motor noise within a ventilation unit. While the silent fan was being fitted at Snibston colliery the 1972 National Coal Queen Margaret Dominiak was wearing a new blue floral dress at the National Coal Mining Reunion in 1976 made of light translucent fabric. For ‘Ventilation Dress II’ the blue floral dress and the silent fan act as a plinth to each other. Both elements are borne from the concept of inducing fresh air into miner’s lives. In this context fresh air is conceived as a vital source for a miners’ well-being be it literally a flow of air used in mining underground as much as the wearing of a blue floral dress above ground that signatures the celebration of a community bound together by a distinct shared identity.