Brart: Bra-Art

International Women's Day

3/8/2023

Recently I read a book called Click - When We Knew We Were Feminists. It’s a series of short essays with a variety of moments when people experienced something in their life and suddenly knew exactly what it meant to be a feminist and knew that they were one. It’s a nice book that showcases how feminism intersects through different aspects of humanity. Recently, I’ve been reflecting if I’ve had a ‘click’ moment.

I have a younger brother and once he was born I started playing with a series of boys toys. I remember I had a black, purple and green bike with aliens on it. I thought it was the coolest bike cause it had aliens. Eventually, I outgrew that bike and got a cool silver and navy blue mountain bike and my alien bike passed onto my brother. At some point as I got older, my parents explained to me that I got a boys bike because it was easier for a girl to ride a boy than a boy to ride a girl bike. This made sense to me at the time and I accepted it. I cannot tell you what age I was when I realized ‘Wait, why aren’t aliens on a ‘girl’s’ bike and why can’t a boy ride a pink bike?’

I can’t remember the age I was when I realized this, but I note it as the first time that I stopped and said ‘Wait, why is that?’ The first of many realizations throughout my life of how deeply gender is ingrained as a social construct in our society. The concept is inherently simple, color indicates a gender, the way my alien bike was not a traditional ‘girl’s’ color scheme. I don’t know that I considered that my one click moment and BOOM I suddenly saw the entire world differently, but it led me down a path of questioning ‘Wait, why is that?’
It’s Women’s History month and today is International Women’s Day. Annual celebrations are bookmarks in our lives to help us understand our own lives and growth compared to a year ago. I think back even five years ago when I said ‘Wait, there is an International Women’s Day?’ I can not pin point every feminist ‘AHA!’ moment I’ve had in my life, but I think it’s important that there has been a series of ‘Wait, why is that?’ moments. I have a cheesey quote that Matthew McCoughney, of all people, said when he was accepting his Oscar, and I’ll abbreviate his story to, ‘You’re hero should be yourself in 10 years.’ It’s cheesey, but on my days when I have self-doubt I think, ‘What would younger me think?,’ as a point of comparison for understanding.

I aspire to be a person that can look back in ten years and say ‘Gosh younger me, would think I’m a bad ass right now.’ Through the lens of my understanding of feminism and how that impacts my life, younger me would think I’m a badass, cutting up bras and learning about women who changed the world and continue to change the world for a more fair and equitable place. I strive to deepen my understanding of how gender constructs impact how we move through life.

When I started doing Brart, when I would meet new people I didn’t always lead with ‘I gather old bras and cut them up to make portraits of women.’ Owning the space to be different has taken time. More recently, as my art has grown I have realized that Brart brings out a beautiful side to people. It subverts expectations and I get to see a genuine reaction to art. With traditional art forms, people have often been taught how to view, interact and think of the art. It’s very common to hear ‘I don’t know what I was expecting when you said portraits made of bras, but this is much cooler than what I pictured in my head.’ One of the coolest parts of continuing to introduce Brart to existing and new communities is that people start to share with me women that have been inspirational to themselves. I get random messages with some variation of, ‘‘Did you know about this Woman, she did this…’ Some of these messages are reiterations of facts I already understood and others are mind blowing realizations that an entire aspect of life was shaped by the impact of a woman. The reiterations are like warm familiar hugs, and new facts can be like explosive growing pains of necessary understanding.

I believe that Brart is an artform that reflects people's understanding of gender as a social construct. To anyone who is just starting, in the middle, or well on your way of understanding how gender constructs have shaped your worldview and your life choices, know that it doesn’t have to be a light switch moment and suddenly everything is clear. It can be a long, confusing journey. Another one of my favorite quotes is ‘You can be a masterpiece and a work in progress at the same time.’ Brart is a self expression that has helped me deepen my understanding of feminism and gender as a social construct. So as Brart has been a helpful tool for helping me understand the impact women have had on the world, I hope it has helped others on their journey as well.

I often get asked ‘Who are you working on next?’ When the glue is actively drying on a piece it’s easy to say who I’m literally working on at that moment. But the larger context of ‘Who are you working on next?’ can be hard to answer. I have so many ideas because there are so many great women in the world and women who have come before us! I hope to never lose ambition for Brart as long as I still have ideas. I recently heard the phrase ‘Women demand inspiration from other women.’ The reality is that my inspiration is all around me. There is an endless list of women that could be commemorated in Brart. There is a stereotype that artists can lose their muse or become uninspired, and I’m sure I will never run out of new stories of women’s accomplishments to be inspired by and share.

The theme of International Women’s Day this year is to Embrace Equity. Wherever you are on your journey of understanding, continue to embrace. Embrace the good. Embrace the uncomfortable. Embrace the growth. Embrace the joy. Embrace the pain. Embrace the community. And perhaps most importantly, embrace yourself as you continue down a path of questions and self reflection.

BRART

Author

Archives

Categories