CUSHING — Eighteen years ago, Cushing artist Katharine Cobey created a one-of-a-kind sculptural dress out of black garbage bag plastic, cut into strips, and knitted together with a skirt made of bright red “Danger” tape gleaned from the local hardware store. The forbidding looking outfit was deemed the “Danger Dress.”

“I made this dress to hang on rods to like a life-size puppet,” said Cobey. “I wanted the dress to speak for itself, but it was originally a message to women to de-emphasize overly sexy clothing. It was meant to be cautionary.”

While displaying the dress at an event hosted by the Center for Maine Contemporary Art many years back, Cobey allowed Camden resident Lucinda Ziesing to try it on—an experience she never forgot.

Several weeks before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, Ziesing remembered the Danger Dress and contacted Cobey, asking permission to borrow it and wear it to the Peace Ball at the African American Museum in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19.

Cobey agreed to the request, loaning the dress as a special favor to Ziesing, who had to insure it for $3,000 on its return by FedEx. “I don’t lend out art pieces in general,” said Cobey. “This was an unusual situation, but because I was not in very good health, I wasn’t able to get to the women’s march in Maine or to the event in Washington, so this was my way of getting there.”

Ziesing met with Cobey to try on the dress once again to see if it still fit (it did) and said, “What should I wear as a head piece?” So, Cobey made her a plastic laurel wreath to go with it.

Ziesing said, “Normally, when you go to a ball, you get dressed up, you try to look good. I’ve never had the experience of wearing something like this or receiving the reactions that I did that night. I was wearing something that everybody felt was speaking fort them. There were hundreds of people giving me a high five and commenting on it.”

The fact that the meaning of the dress changed with the intent of the woman who wore it delighted Cobey. “Why not?” she said. “I mean, certainly I think it was topical to use it in that way.”

Ziesing continued, “There’s danger in the moral fiber of our country right now, in how contested both sides are and the debates about the ‘truth.’ There’s danger in who is being appointed for Trump’s cabinet and the values that he espouses. And there is danger, capital D, particularly for women in the president's attitude towards them. He gives every indication of being a sexual predator and what kind of modeling is this?”

The nearly 20-year-old dress has been in eight or nine museums around the United States, including museums in Washington, D.C., New York, Houston, California and Boston.

“This dress had had a wonderful life,” said Cobey and while it is tattered from its journey, it may not be retired yet. While in Washington, D.C., Ziesing was approached by a representative of the Smithsonian Museum about including it in their collection.

Now, safely packed away back in Cobey’s studio, the Danger Dress may not speak, but it still has a lot to say.

Photos courtesy Lucinda Ziesing

 Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com