My project is based off an archive of receipts dating from the 1940s to 1950s, all belonging to one man in Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland, named Jim Bourke. Receipts have always interested me, as they seem to represent so much, act as tokens of human activity, when they are so often discarded and forgotten. Through looking more deeply at the receipt archive, and doing more contextual research, I found myself beginning to feel a connection to Jim Bourke, trying to understand him in my mind and join together a sense of his character. My garments sensitively celebrate Mr Bourke, and by taking relevant garment references and deconstructing them, piecing them back together and dipping them all in pink dye, a man appears before us, from his receipts.
‘Would you like your receipt, Mr Bourke?’