Colonial Dress, House of European History, Brussels

2019

Colonial Dress is currently on show in the exhibition Postcolonial? at the House of European History, Brussels, Belgium, until 14th March 2027. Crafted from 1920's world maps that feature British Empire-claimed territories in pink. It is loosely based on a style that reflects women's fashions in the 1880's. It is concerned with claiming female territory, mapping the female body, social and colonial histories, and their ongoing impacts. Examining how patriarchal forms of dominance spread with and through the empire and how European colonizers often dismantle pre-existing female authority and land rights, replacing them with patriarchal systems.

‘In the 1920s, one-quarter of the globe was pink, which struck me as obscene. I used the maps to make an extended world on the skirt, a sort of world map in itself. At this time, I was drawing comparisons between maps, country and continent shapes, and human anatomy. I had a scan of my liver and was struck by its resemblance in shape to Brazil; hence, Brazil is placed where the liver is, Africa in place of the stomach, and Manchester (my hometown) is placed where the heart is.’ Susan Stockwell.

Exhibitions:

Postcolonial? House of European History, Brussels, Belgium. Exhibition exploring the long-lasting effects of colonisation and its ending in Europe over the last 70 years.

Maastricht Art Fair 2019 with Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, NL

First Cut Manchester Art Gallery & Platt Hall, Manchester, UK 2011

The Creative Compass Royal Geographical Society & IBG London 2010

Contemporary Interventions York Art Gallery, UK 2009

Paper Tiger One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, 2008, UK

Body Talks, The Florence Nightingale Museum, St Thomas ' Hospital, London, UK

Collections:

The House of European History, Brussels, Belgium

Publications:

Anti-Slave Remembrance Day: EU exhibition asks what remains of European colonialism, The Brussels Times, 24th August 2026

Can Europe ever be postcolonial? A Brussels museum confronts the afterlife of empire

The Brussels Times, 16th August 2026