Artist Susie MacMurray at islington Mill

a gown hewn from black Napa leather and more than 94 pounds of adamantine dressmaker pins. Now on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s “Power of Making” exhibit in London, the prickly garment translates the grief of lost love into a shroud that inflicts physical pain and repels human contact and sympathy. Widow is the fourth in a series of garment sculptures that explore concepts of female identity—pins have strong associations with so-called “women’s work”—and vulnerability. Look if you will, but touch at your own peril.