In Woman in Dress With Star, the bronze sculpture is cut with the words of Medieval writer John Donne: In Mee the Flame was Nevermore Alive I could Beginne again.
Dill has called these words “fierce, fragile and hopeful”, capturing the flash of creative thought, of being alive again. Atop the head rests a star-like crown, invoking “the Flame”, the inner world’s fire at the point of creation. Below is the dress, with flowing layers and folds. First formed as a paper sculpture, it is then cast into bronze in a manner that retains the surface tactility of paper, and captures the tension of lightness against the hard metal, like armor. The
illusion is so strong that viewers often touch the dress to confirm it is truly metal. Art writer Arlene Raven saw potent transformations held in these artworks, as she wrote: “For Dill, words are dimensional elements seen and felt, filling a room with silent yet penetrating speech.”
Born in Bronxville, New York, Lesley Dill grew up in Maine and the Adirondacks. Now based in
Brooklyn, the artist works with a variety of materials such as horsehair, muslin, thread, photography, and metal that accumulates into sculpture, performance, works on paper, and fabric. From the early 1980s onwards, Dill has had over 100 solo exhibitions. Her work is found in museum collections across the United States, and has been shown both nationally and internationally. She was recently awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Lesley Dill is the most recent artist represented by Nohra Haime Gallery.