PhD thesis

 

I’ve just submitted my PhD thesis – it’s great to have finished it and it does look impressive - in size if nothing else! However, it’s quite scary to think that the next step is the viva examination. It’s been an exciting research journey looking at net curtains and using them as a metaphor for events in the home, which has resulted in links to Victorian domesticity, mid-nineteenth-century gothic novels like those of the Brontes, and Freud’s idea of the uncanny. It’s a practice-based PhD so as well as writing a thesis I’ve also produced practice, which has involved lacemaking as well as subversive stitching, and has considered them both as forms of communication. Having based the research on gothic novels I’ve also used the form of the novel as a framework for the research so the chapter headings give a flavour of the research: sanctuary and prison; the unquiet voice; silent witness; and complicit curtain. Although I’ve finished the thesis I now have to organise the exhibition of the practice, which will be held at the Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, London, between 8 and 12 September so no time to relax just yet.